The Mainagate saga seems to be unending as different sides to the story appears daily. Some Government officials, who hitherto distanced themselves from the reinstatement of Maina, have begun to take responsibility for some actions.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Abubakar Magaji, has admitted to all administrative lapses which led to the reinstatement and promotion of the former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reform, Abdulrasheed Maina.
Magaji, while fielding questions from the ad-hoc Committee set up by the House of Representatives to investigate the circumstances surrounding the reinstatement, said “I take responsibility for the administrative error by the Ministry of Interior in the whole matter”.
The Ad-hoc Committee is headed by the member representing Dala Federal Constituency of Kano State, Aliyu Madaki.
Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, was able to establish that Magaji acted on a letter from the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), without getting a formal directive from her office.
Meanwhile, Magaji said his office acted on the FCSC’s letter because it believed it was the body constitutionally empowered to employ and promote Civil Servants.
“But service is an institution, whatever happened in the process of the minutes, the Permanent Secretary is the Head of the Administration and I am here to take responsibility”.
Oyo-Ita stated that FCSC considered the administrative aspect of the case, which is punishable by dismissal, adding that the letter reinstating Maina was not delivered.
“An officer, who is being reinstated or employed afresh into any Ministry, ought to report to the Office of the Head of Service, before he is given a posting to whichever MDA but that was not the case with Mr Maina.
“There was no posting instruction for Mr Maina to report to the Ministry of Interior from the Office of the Head of Service”.
The Ministry of Interior, had earlier accused the Head of Civil Service of endorsing the reinstatement of Maina.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami denied approving the reinstatement of Maina, saying he has directed the Permanent Secretary to carry out internal investigations on the letters from his office.
“The letter dated October 5 was never signed by me. Maina’s case, up to that point, was still work in progress and I wrote KIV on it.
“Again, the letter of February 21 could not have emanated from my office because it did not follow procedure. The matter is under investigation”.
Speaking on behalf of the Committee, Madaki requested that the report of the independent investigation, embarked on by the AGF, gets to the Committee within a week.
The AGF claimed his Special Adviser and Line Officers in the Ministry wrote for his approval to reinstate Maina.
The Committee has called on the said Special Adviser, Kehinde Ogini, and other Administrative Staff in the Office of the AFG to explain their roles in Maina’s reinstatement.
The Director General, State Security Services (SSS), Lawal Daura, said the AGF, sometime in 2015/2016, placed a call to him, to advise him on whether or not to consent to seeing Maina, who had requested the AGF meets him.
According to Daura, he advised the AGF to see Maina, but with a third party, to which he complied.
On why the SSS provided protection for Maina, Daura said the former Pension Boss submitted a letter to the Agency, alleging threat to his life. He added that upon thorough scrutiny, the letter was found to be genuine, hence the action.
“Because of the right to life which is guaranteed by our constitution universally recognized, Maina’s case was directed to be looked into so as not to allow his life to be in jeopardy”.
He further explained that no Agency, including the EFCC, wrote the SSS seeking to arrest Maina.
Daura stated that the agency has nothing to do with the reinstatement of Maina and his subsequent promotion.
Answering questions from the Committee, the Nigerian Immigration Service Boss (NIS), Mohammed Babandede said records available shows Maina has not passed through recognized airports out of the Country, since 2013 when he was blocked.
“If he has been travelling, then it means he has not been travelling through an airport we can see. By law, if you pass through a border you are entitled to report to an Immigration Officer.
So, if Maina has been travelling from 2013 till date, we don’t know. If he has been passing through borders he has not reported to an Immigration Officer. As far as we are concerned, Maina has not been travelling since 2013”.
He added that the NIS knew Maina in September 2013, when he was stopped from leaving the Country at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, as a result of EFCC directive.
He indicated that prior to the time, Maina was not on the NIS stop list. He also disclosed that in addition to being a citizen of Nigeria, Maina is also a citizen of the United States of America.
The NIS Boss revealed that on December 1, 2015, the EFCC directed the NIS to remove Maina’s name from the stop list, a directive to which they complied.
“But when the case of Maina started and a directive was given by the President that he should be probed, we blocked his name again in our stop list. We blocked all his passports which mean he cannot reissue his passport any longer and he cannot pass through our recognised borders”.
Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu said he was unaware that the Commission directed the NIS to remove Maina’s name from the stop list, adding that the letter was before his assumption of office.
“This is the first time in my life that I have seen this letter. But it will be investigated”.
Magu also refuted claims that pension assets recovered by Maina were looted by the anti-graft agency, saying assets recovered by the EFCC were as a result of independent investigations.
“Maina did not hand over a single asset to the Commission. Let him give details of the assets, the dates and officials who received them”.
Last week, Maina’s lawyer, Mohammed Sanni Katu, told the ad-hoc Committee that his client was still in service and was regularly paid.
When the Committee asked the lawyer to produce evidence of the salary payment of his client, he could not tender any document.
Debunking the claims, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, said Maina was last paid in February 2013, adding that from March 2013, his name was removed from the payroll.
“If there was any payment of salary to Maina, there should be pay slips and other documentary evidences to support the payments as claimed”.
“I don’t know from where he received the salary. There is nobody with the name Abdulrasheed Maina in our system”.
Maina is not being paid salary – Adeosun
Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun confirmed the Accountant General’s statements, saying there is no trace of payment of salary to Maina, after he was disengaged from service in 2013.
“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”.
