THE regular meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) was on Wednesday cancelled by President Muhammadu Buhari.
It would have been the first to be presided over by him after his nearly 105 days medical vacation in the United Kingdom over an undisclosed ailment.
It was not the first time cabinet meeting had been put off since the president took ill as it had been canceled in the past or Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made to preside over the weekly meeting even when the president was in the presidential villa.
Since his return to the country last Saturday, Buhari has been operating from an office in his official residence with the Presidency saying that it was a move to give room for his damaged office to the be renovated.
Senior Special Assistant to the president on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, revealed to the media on Tuesday that the office could not be used because rodents had destroyed many of the equipment.
Buhari however received the Osinbajo Investigative Panel Report on the suspended Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), David Babachir Lawal and the Director General of the National intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayo Oke.
The SGF was investigated for alleged abuse of funds belonging to the Presidential Initiative on North East (PINE) while the DG NIA ran into troubled waters over the huge sums of money in foreign currencies discovered at flat on Osborne Road, Ikoyi Lagos.
Buhari was scheduled to receive the report on May 7 but that was the day he left the country for London on medical vacation.
Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, confirmed the story in a statement issued on Wednesday morning in Abuja, saying: “The meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) will not hold today.
“President Muhammadu Buhari, will however, receive the Report of the investigation committee into the allegations against the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayo Oke, headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, at 12 noon, in his office.”
After submitting the report, Vice President Osinbajo was not forthcoming with information on the report when pressed by correspondents to give an insight into the recommendations.
He said he could not as it was up to the president to read it and take his decision.
“Of course, I cannot. How can I? This is a document which has just been submitted to the President. He is the one who will read the recommendations and the facts and then make a decision,” he said.
He also declined to say whether or not the suspended officials would now be sacked, saying: “No, how can I tell you? If you want to know what is in the report you have to wait, you really have to wait.”
Insisting that he would not give details of the recommendations, Osinbajo maintained that they were meant for the president, explaining that his panel was only a fact-finding one.
He added: “Of course not. I mean this is a report which contains recommendations to the President.
“It is a fact-finding committee as you know and what our terms of reference were was to find out based on the fact available to us and based on the interviews of witnesses of what transpired in those cases of the report, one involving the SGF and the other the DG of NIA.
“We have now concluded that and we submitted a full report with recommendations to the President.
“We cannot of course give you any kind of details because the President has to look at the report, study it and then make his own decisions based on that report.”
The Vice President however assured that the panel came up with a fair report, stressing: “Well, as you can imagine we are always fair minded and the whole approach is to ensure that justice is done in all cases.
“It is in the interest of the government and also the interest of the nation that things are done properly and that there is due process and that we are not unfair. You can be sure that we will do the right thing?”
On how soon the president’s position would be made public, the Vice President said it was a detailed report which the president needed to study before taking his decision.
“All I can now say is that we have submitted the report to the President and it is a very detailed report as a matter of fact. The President has to study for the report and make decisions,” he declared.