Interior ministry acted without my approval on Maina’s reinstatement - Oyo-Ita declares

Interior ministry acted without my approval on Maina’s reinstatement - Oyo-Ita declares

- The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita has said that the ministry of interior acted without her approval to reinstate Abdulrasheed Maina

- Maina was dismissed from service in 2013 for alleged pension fraud and he was thought to have fled the country shortly after

- She said the claim that the directive to reinstate Maina came from my office is limited in facts

Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, has said that the ministry of interior acted without her approval to reinstate Abdulrasheed Maina, the former head of Presidential Task Force on Pension Reform.

Daily Trust reports that Maina was dismissed from service in 2013 for alleged pension fraud and he was thought to have fled the country shortly after.

Legit.ng gathered that but last month he reported for duty at the ministry of interior after he was secretly reinstated.

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The situation developed into a scandal for the government when the story blew open with a lot of recriminations among top government functionaries.

The HoS on Thursday, November 30, at the continuation of a hearing by a House ad-hoc committee investigating the matter said the ministry acted without her approval.

“For the permanent secretary of the ministry of interior, Abubakar Magaji, to claim that the directive to reinstate Maina came from my office is limited in facts,” Oyo-Ita said, reacting to the submission by Magaji.

“The remarks by Magaji that he acted based on directives of the Head of Service, to put it mildly, is not quite correct.

“There is a process of conveyance of reinstatement instructions. The Federal Civil Service Commission would send a letter to the Head of Service and also send another letter to the beneficiary of that reinstatement under the flying seal of the Head of Service.

“The ministry of interior did not wait to get a posting instruction before they went ahead and reinstated Maina and assigned him duties.

“So this is to completely discountenance the attempt by the Permanent Secretary that they acted on an issue in an illegal manner while trying to make claims that there was a legality from my office”, she added.

However, the permanent secretary Engr. Abubakar Magaji, insisted that the ministry acted appropriately.

Magaji said when the letter got to him, he quickly acted on it, insisting that his responsibility is to act on any official document sent to him.

Meanwhile, finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, told the panel that the last time Abdulrasheed Maina received salary as a civil servant was in February, 2013.

Adeosun, who was reacting to claims last week by Maina’s lawyers that he was still receiving salary, said there was nowhere that Maina’s record is still existing in the government’s payment system after being sacked Maina since 2013.

She said: “We use two platforms to pay salary: IPPI and Gipmis. There was no any record that Maina was paid. His records have been moved to PTAD, and all the data of PTAD staff were captured. No such information is there.”

Members of the committee grilled the attorney general minister of justice and Malami because they said his office appeared to be the genesis of the ongoing Maina reinstatement scandal by initiating the process in the first place.

But the AGF said he never sanctioned Maina’s reinstatement because the matter remained a “work in progress as at October 5.” He said his office is already investigating the matter and the outcome would soon be out.

But the committee chairman, Madaki, gave him one week to produce the report of the in-house investigative panel.

Also speaking at the hearing, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Mohammed Babandede, said operated three passports.

He said Maina used to have an official passport, which had expired but not renewed; an ordinary valid passport and an American passport.

“We got to know about Maina on September 27, 2013 when he was going out of the country through the MMIA. He has three passports. The first one was an official one, expired not renewed. His current passport is valid till 2018. He also has a valid US passport, to expire 26 Aug, 2022.

“In Dec 2015, we received a letter from EFCC to remove his name from stop list. But after the president’s directive, we blocked his name on the passport. So, according to our records, he hasn’t been traveling since 2013.”

Also, the Director General of the Department of State Security (DSS), Lawal Daura, told the panel that the disappearance and subsequent exit of Maina was made possible because there was no request by any government agency to that effect.

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“In March 2017, Maina approached the service that there were threats to his life. The letter was scrutinized as is the practice.

“We directed that his case be directed to be looked into so as not to allow his life to be in jeopardy. The service has no hand in his reinstatement,” he said.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the permanent secretary in the interior ministry, Engineer Abubakar Magaji, was reported to have claimed responsibility for the reinstatement and promotion of Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reform (PTFPR).

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Source: Legit.ng

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