THE Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Interior, Mr Abubakar Magaji, on Thursday, owned up to all the administrative lapses leading to the “erroneous” reinstatement and promotion of Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the presidential task force on pension reform.
Magaji disclosed this while answering questions directed at him by members of the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the circumstances surrounding the disappearance, reappearance, reinstatement, and promotion of Maina.
The permanent secretary had earlier indicted the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, as being responsible for the letter directing Maina’s reinstatement.
However, Oyo-Ita, in her submission before the panel, was surprised at the stand of the permanent secretary whom she described as “a senior permanent secretary in the civil service.”
Oyo-Ita, therefore, said Maina remained dismissed from the civil service as far as the rules and her office were concerned.
Speaking on the alleged looted assets under the Economic and Financial Crimes Commision (EFCC), the acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu, told the panel that Maina never handed over any asset to the commission, adding that assets in EFCC custody were those recovered by the Commission in the course of its own investigation of pension thieves, including Maina himself.
Magu argued that the only link between the EFCC and Maina task team was the participation of a few staff of the commission on the team.
“Maina has not a single seized asset he handed over to the EFCC, and if there are any of such, we would like to know the types of assets, the locations, the date of handing over and which officer signed the handing over document of the assets
“So, there can’t be any asset to be shared by the EFCC, and if there was any sharing, we would also like to know when, where, and who per took in the sharing from the EFCC,” he said.
Asked why the EFCC vacated its earlier order declaring Maina wanted in 2015 as stated by the Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mohammed Babandede, Magu denied it.
He said the order was signed in December while he took over the affairs of EFCC in October of the same year, but did not instruct one Kabiru, member of Maina’s task team from the EFCC, to sign such a letter.
Magu insisted that he was seeing the letter for the first time.
In his submission, Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, told the committee that Maina did not receive a salary from the government after his disengagement as being alleged.
She said from the records of the ministry, there was no trace of any payment of salary to Maina after he was disengaged from service in 2013.
According to her, “we have looked very well and we have no biometrics of Maina, so there is no way he could have received salaries as being claimed.
In his submission, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris, said Maina was last paid salary in February 2013.
According to Idris, from March, he was removed from the payroll, so I don’t know where he was receiving the salary.
“If there was any payment of salary to Maina, there should be pay slips and other documentary evidences to support the payments as claimed,” he said.
In his claim, counsel for Maina, Mohammed Sanni Katu, said there was a judgment from the Federal High Court that set aside the warrant of arrest which led to his query and subsequent dismissal.
According to him, “having set aside all those queries and dismissal, it means Mr Abdulrasheed Maina should revert to his earlier status.
“Before he was dismissed, he was a civil servant and being a civil servant, the question can as well be raised if he is entitled to salary and the answer is yes, that as a federal civil servant, he is entitled to his salary.
“At one point, efforts were made to calculate his salaries from March 2013 till date, perhaps if not for what has happened now, they would have paid him a salary in October.”