Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said he will waive his constitutional immunity to be investigated on allegation of graft.
Osinbajo made this known in a tweet, yesterday.
“In the past few days, a spate of reckless and malicious falsehoods have been peddled in the media against me by a group of malicious individuals,” he tweeted.
“The defamatory and misleading assertions invented by this clique have been making the social media rounds anonymously. I have today instructed the commencement of legal action against two individuals, one Timi Frank and another Katch Ononuju, who have put their names to these odious falsehoods.
“I will waive my constitutional immunity to enable the most robust adjudication of these claims of libel and malicious falsehood,” the Vice president said.
Timi Frank, former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had alleged that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) made N90 billion available to the vice president for election campaign, an allegation that the tax agency has denied.
Frank has since responded urging the FIRS to stop deceiving Nigerians.
Frank said he cannot be intimidated by the agency’s threat to sue him, describing the agency’s statements as a “puerile attempt to sweep the main issues in his public statement under the carpet.”
He said the FIRS cannot continue to deceive Nigerians by claiming “unfounded budgetary fidelity.”
The Vice President in a statement by his media aide, Laolu Akande refuted allegations on the mismanagement of the social investment funds.
“The Office of the Vice President is not involved in financial transactions or the disbursement of funds for the Buhari administration’s National Social Investment Programmes (N-SIPs),.
“The Ministry of Budget and National Planning, is in charge of all matters regarding financing, budgeting, procurement and disbursement of funds allocated and released for the N-SIPs.
“The Steering Committee for the NSIO, chaired by the Vice President, supervises the implementation of the SIPs, the Steering Committee comprises nine ministers, including those from Finance, Education, Health, Agriculture, Trade and Investment, Youth and Sports, Women Affairs, Labour and Productivity, Information, Ministry of Budget and National Planning as the Secretariat. The Steering Committee meets regularly for updates, to review, advise, guide and approve the processes of the N-SIPs.