$43 million latest: Fresh fears as allegation of infractions rocks presidential panel

ALLEGATION of breach of security standard is reportedly rocking the three-man presidential panel investigating the controversial $43 million found at the Osborne Towers in Ikoyi Lagos State.

There were serious concerns that some sensitive information and details classified in security circles as top secrets were being exposed to non-operatives, in total breach of global standard and practice.

The panel, which is headed by the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, is also investigating suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Babachir Lawal, over contracts awarded by the Presidential Initiative on the North-East (PINE) to a company linked to him.

The allegation of the breach of global practice in the intelligence gathering is coming against the outcry by prominent Nigerians like former Minister of External Affairs, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, calling for a halt to leakage of information on the activities of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA).

There were fears at the weekend in intelligence and security circles that the breach was already causing incalculable damage to the agency’s image, its operatives, as well as its operations.

Though the three-man presidential panel is saddled with investigating the NIA and the allegation of corruption levelled against the SGF, it is the agency’s $43 million cash found in Flat7B inside Osborne Towers in Ikoyi in a sting operation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that has dominated national discourse.

But competent sources claimed while the idea behind the presidential panel to unravel the mystery surrounding the ownership of the fund was good, what insiders described as the indecorous manner of the panel’s operation and political considerations are having consequential effect on the country’s image.

Apart from the danger the exposure of the NIA and its operatives is causing the country, the sources informed Sunday Tribune that many international partners of the agency, liaison agencies worldwide “are now reluctant to do business with it,” citing exposure of its activities blown cover as reasons.

There are also allegations being bandied by some powerful interests involved in the apparent struggle for power that the investigation committee led by the vice-president with the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno and the Attorney -General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, as members, violated its operational terms by involving all manner of individuals to sit on the panel when they were not empanelled to do so.

Sunday Tribune learnt that “Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun; Deputy Chief of Staff to the vice-president, Ade Ipaye, and a few other unknown individuals have sat on the panel at different times,” and have had the privilege of getting information on the numerous covert operations of the agency and its agents, thus escalating the exposure of the NIA’s activities to persons without such security clearance.

“Their involvement brought new dynamics by changing the rules in the middle of the game, and obvious intrusion  and dilution of what is supposed a three-man Presidential  Panel,” said a source, expressing worry that such a term of reference breach could also create the impression that the decision of the committee “could have a predetermined end.”

But an insider source debunked such claims, saying some individuals were brought on the panel as experts, sighting the case of Adeosun and Ipaye, who is  said to be head of the panel’s secretariat.

The fear that the committee may work towards a certain result in the case of the NIA, Sunday Tribune learnt, is not unconnected with the rumoured interplay of powerful interests in the Presidency.

The State Security Service, headed by Mr Lawan Daura, is said to be providing a strong backing for the NIA while the NSA and EFCC are on the other side.

For instance, Mr Monguno, a member of the panel, has been variously mentioned as having knowledge of the source of the contentious money; a claim he has also vehemently denied.

His presence on the panel, it is being alleged, could be one of the determining factors, despite the oral and material evidence supplied by the Director-General of NIA, Ambassador Ayodele Oke and others summoned by the panel.

The evidence supplied the panel so far, it was said, exposed the failings of all security agencies which are supposed to provide cover for the operations of the NIA, particularly the NSA, who has continued to deny knowledge of the fund and the claim that Oke briefed him on the existence of the money.

What Oke’s wife told panel

Mrs Folashade Oke, wife of the DG NIA who has been variously mentioned in the whole affair had been appeared before the panel over the ownership of Flat7B, Sunday Tribune gathered. She was said to have provided insight into how the flat was bought as one of the safe houses of the agency. She was said to have told the panel that she only acted on the instruction of her husband.

She denied knowledge of the operational framework of the NIA or that of his husband. She was said to have told members of the panel that she never asked questions about her husband’s official duties, even when he asked her to conduct any transaction on his behalf as the case was with the Osborne property, whose ownership, Sunday Tribune learnt was transferred to NIA immediately after the purchase.