A former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, has warned that the report of the Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo panel investigating the discovery of N13.3 billion in an apartment in Ikoyi by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should remain classified in order not to compromise national security.

This is just as it emerged during the weekend that the panel is strongly considering at least a week’s extension to conclude its investigations and submit its report to President Muhammadu Buhari.

The move to extend the deadline may have been compelled by the testimonies and volumes of documents presented by the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal, and Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayodele Oke, among several other government officials who have been summoned by the panel, thus requiring further scrutiny.

The panel, which is scheduled to conclude and submit its reports on Wednesday, was set up by the president on April 19 and given two weeks to investigate the alleged mismanagement of funds routed through the Presidential Initiatives for the North-east (PINE), which Lawal chaired in his capacity as the SGF.

The panel is also to investigate the discovery of N13.3 billion in the Ikoyi flat, which the NIA has claimed were its funds meant for projects in Lagos and the South-west.

Others on the panel are the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) Abubakar Malami and the National Security Adviser (NSA) Babagana Monguno.

However, Akinyemi, in a statement on Sunday said when news broke that some millions of dollars had been found hidden in a flat in Ikoyi, he was quite indifferent, as it had become a “recurring decimal”.

“I was not even bothered when nobody initially stepped forward to claim it. But when Ambassador Ayo Oke stepped forward to claim it on the part of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), alarm bells started to ring in my ears.

“It is one of the sacred traditions of the external intelligence trade to admit nothing and to deny nothing,” he said.

Akinyemi, who was also the deputy chairman of the 2014 National Conference, noted that a saving grace emerged when the president set up the Osinbajo panel to untangle the web over the millions of dollars.

“But the president inadvertently made a mistake. He did not appoint anyone with a history of external intelligence experience unto the panel.

“External intelligence operations do not belong in the same security genre as domestic security forces such as the DSS, EFCC and the police.

“External intelligence officers, otherwise called spies, do not operate under the same operational penalties as domestic intelligence officers.

“The ultimate penalty for a foreign spy in most countries is death. Countries go to incredible lengths to hide the identities of their agents both domestic and foreign and their operations. No receipts get issued. Budgets are called black budgets because they are never publicly acknowledged.

“It would have been reassuring if the president had appointed a former head of or a former very senior member of NIA to be a member of the panel.

“Even at this late stage, let me remind the vice-president that a lawyer with a specialty in constitutional law will not appreciate the niceties of international law. It is not too late to appoint a retired head of NIA as a consultant to the panel,” he said.

The former minister explained that he was motivated at this late stage to issue the statement in view of the fact that the House of Representatives has decided to institute its own inquiry to this “peculiar mess”.

“This is a dangerous move. In my knowledge in this field, I know of only one occasion when a government, in this case, the United States Government, set up a congressional committee, the Church Committee, named after the Chairman, Senator Frank Churchill, to look into ‘governmental operations with respect to intelligence activities’.

“In fact, the main issue which was its concern was ‘did the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ever indulge in carrying out assassinations of foreign presidents?’

“Normally, foreign intelligence activities are shrouded in secrecy and not in the glare of publicity,” he added.

Akinyemi pointed out that the whole saga had made Nigeria a laughing stock in the world, adding that Nigerian agents strewn all across Africa are now in dread of being exposed.

“Recruiting agents in future in Africa is going to be difficult out of fear of future exposure,” he cautioned.

Akinyemi went on to proffer recommendations to limit the damage that has already been done:

• It is not too late to call in a former Director of NIA to serve as a consultant to the Osinbajo panel.

• No more leaks from the panel.

• Under no circumstances should the report of the panel, in as far as it relates to the activities of the NIA, be made public.

• Under no circumstances should the National Assembly be allowed to conduct hearings into the NIA affairs. The Osinbajo panel report could be shared secretly with the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House.

• Should any NIA officer be found culpable, he or she should be quietly eased out. Putting a foreign intelligence officer on trial in an open court is going to be disastrous to external national security interests. If there is no provision to put an intelligence officer on trial in a secret and special court, an executive bill should be sent to the National Assembly to make provisions for such.

• Under no circumstances should one security agency be allowed to move against another security agency, especially one dealing with foreign intelligence, without the express permission of the president or in his absence the acting president. This should be without any publicity or fanfare.