Fresh details have emerged of how
the embattled former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT),
Abdulrasheed Maina allegedly “arranged” for his reinstatement and subsequent
withdrawal of the court case he instituted against the Federal Government, with
influential individuals in the office of the Attorney General of the Federation
(AGF) and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN).
Controversy has trailed the
alleged role of the office of the AGF, the Minister for Interior, Abdulrahman
Dambazzau, the chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu; the Federal Civil Service
Commission (FCSC), Oluremi Joseph Akande; and the Head of Service of the
Federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita in Maina’s reinstatement and promotion into
the Federal Civil Service, which was approved on August 16 and completed in
October with a rank of Director Grade Level 17 and backdated to February 21,
2013.
However, it has emerged that much
of the work, including the recommendation to get President Muhammadu Buhari to
use his “presidential directive” to effect Maina’s reinstatement was done in
the office of the AGF. The office had initiated the move for Maina’s recall
after he was reported to have made some visits and tendered the court cases he
had instituted challenging his disengagement from the civil service.
The presentation by the dramatis
personae in the saga including the Director-General of the Department of State
Services (DSS), Mamman Daura; the Commandant of the Nigerian Immigration
Service (NIS), Muhammed Babandede at Thursday’s sitting of the House of
Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the disappearance, reappearance,
reinstatement and promotion of Maina, including admission by the AGF on how he
arrived at the opinion he proffered for his reinstatement, has further exposed
the irregularity in the process.
The AGF tendered copies of the
memo generated from his office, which played a pivotal part in Maina’s
reinstatement and promised that he has set up an internal probe into how one of
his Special Assistants arrived at the memo to convince him “as to how the
effect of judgment provided by Maina could have a coessential effect on
reinstatement which was not developed and presented.”
Sources said Maina had on such
visits to the ministry between February and May, 2017, which was a follow-up of
his earlier meeting with the AGF outside the country, presented the various
suits he initiated and the opinion of his lawyer, Mahmud Magaji (SAN) that his
query and dismissal for abscondment despite the pendency and eventual order
voiding the warrant by Justice Adamu Bello in suit No: FHC/CV/65/2013 before an
Abuja Federal High Court, was subjudice and amounted to contempt of court.
His lawyer suggested that the
action negated the principle that once a matter has been placed within the
domain of the court, no action shall or ought to be taken by any party thereto
to debase or in any way undermine the outcome of the court’s intervention.
Maina thus contended that the
action sacking him from the Federal Civil Service was taken without given him
fair hearing more so as he was forced into hiding because of the warrant of
arrest issued by the Senate Committee on Establishment to the Inspector General
of Police and an attempt on his life by some unknown assailants traceable to
persons who felt threatened by “the fraud of monumental proportion” he
discovered in the country’s pension system.
Maina further explained to the
aides of the AGF that he also initiated suit no: NICN/ABJ/68/2013 before the
Industrial Court in Abuja challenging the action of the Head of Service of the
Federation and Ministry of Interior in the query dated February 15, 2013 which
cited him for serious misconduct offending Public Service Rules 030301 to
0303014 for his abscondment from duty following a warrant of arrest by the
police and demanding the sum of N2.5 billion in damages.
He explained that Justice Adamu
Bello of the Federal High Court in Abuja on March 27, 2013 held that the
warrant of arrest was a nullity and that the procedure adopted by the Senate
was not valid based on the powers of the National Assembly in sections 88 and
89 of the Constitution because he was not given fair hearing.
After Maina’s presentations, on
April 27, 2017 a legal assistant to Malami, produced the said memo detailing
why the AGF acting within his powers in Section 174 of the Constitution, should
re-emphasize his advice to the FCSC to give consequential effect to the
judgment of the Federal High Court. The aide suggested also that the AGF can
“weight advisory to the president to issue a Presidential Directive to the FCSC
to reinstate Maina to his normal position and full rights and privileges.”
Earlier, the AGF had in a letter
with reference no: HAGF/FCSC/2017/Vol.1/2 dated February 21, 2017 where he gave
an interpretation that the judgment of the Federal High Court in 2013 voided
the warrant of arrest “issued by the police against Dr Abdulrasheed Maina,
which warrant of arrest formed the basis for the query referenced MI/30040/1/1
dated the 15th day of February, 2013 and his eventual dismissal from the
service of the Federal Government of Nigeria on the 5th day of March 2013.”
In the memo titled: ‘Complaint of
illegal dismissal and appeal for reinstatement of Dr Abdulrasheed Maina to his
office, demand for update of the reinstatement of Dr Abdulrasheed Maina as
Director in the Federal Civil Service’, the said SA also submitted that
recalling Maina would be in public interest because it would give hope to other
civil servants who have similar experience like Maina.
He said Maina has a lot of
experience in pension administration that can be tapped, adding that he can be
used as prosecution witness for the EFCC and ICPC in the pending cases of
pension scam in various courts.
“That as head when the fraud of
monumental proportion was discovered and a huge sum of stolen funds reportedly
recovered under his watch and given the fact he must have reported some
government officials to agencies like EFCC and ICPC and strike a deal to act as
prosecution witness in most of the cases under investigation,” the SA wrote in
the memo.
Satisfied the process was in
place, Maina agreed to withdraw the suit before the National Industrial Court
in Abuja where he had demanded “an order quashing the entire steps taken by the
Head of Service of the Federation on the dismissal of the claimant.”
Based on the application by
Maina’s lawyers formally withdrawing the suit, Justice Olufunke Anowe on
November 8 struck it out from the court’s records.
However, sources alleged many
“issues” played a major role in the official advice and the purported letter
from the office of the AGF to the FCSC for Maina’s reinstatement. Thus, the AGF
at the House hearing on Thursday promised that he had directed the Permanent
Secretary in the Ministry to probe the memo and the letter to the FCSC to
unravel what really transpired and he would report back to the House.
“When this controversy arose, I
instructed the Permanent Secretary taken into consideration my earlier K.I.V.
of a letter dated 5th October, that they should initiate process to now unravel
what truly transpired if indeed those letters have actually emanated from the
Federal Ministry of Justice and what indeed transpired. I can assure you I can
ask them to expedite action for that,” he said.
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ReplyDeleteWe are watching and 2019 is fast approaching......
ReplyDeleteBuharisation,the king of all progressive corrupt Leaders in Nigeria
ReplyDeleteStop the drama,we are already aware the approval came from Mr president through AGF,NSA and others for a job well done by making PMB APC lead administration recover 1.3trillion. Whats the hullabaloo about???
ReplyDelete