It is not the best of times for the Chairman of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property, Okoi Obono-Obla, as President Muhammadu Buhari has approved his suspension from office.
Mr Obono-Obla’s suspension letter, signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, directed the embattled official to step down and then proceed to answer questions from the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, Premium Times report.
He is to face probe over allegations of certificate forgery and other corruption-related charges.
The letter by Mr Mustapha indicated that while Mr Obono-Obla remained on suspension, the Solicitor-General of the Federation, Dayo Apata, would take charge of the panel on recovery of public property. Other members of the panel will however remain in office.
Our sources said the SGF office has since sent messages to Mr Obono-Obla to come pick up his suspension letter.
Trouble began for Mr Obono-Obla last Friday when a detachment of police officers from Force Headquarters descended on his Asokoro office and sealed off the building just after the official closed for the day.
It was a preemptive move to block the official from removing evidence, one source familiar with the matter told the online paper.
Obono-Obla had rubbished the ICPC report as “contrived” and unfair to him because the detectives who conducted it did not invite him to defend himself.
“They have never called me to testify and properly defend myself against all the allegations,” he said.He said the ICPC conclusion was one-sided like the one reached by the House last year.
“They based their so-called investigation on the findings of the House of Reps which was similarly unfair to me,” he said.
“I went to the University of Jos and graduated. I went to the Nigerian Law School and graduated. Nobody can say those certificates were forged. I have used them for 25 years to practice law,” Mr Obono-Obla said.
