Interior ministry perm sec takes blame for Maina reinstatement saga

Abubakar Magaji, the permanent secretary, ministry of interior, has owned up to administrative lapses in the reinstatement of Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman, Pension Reform Task Team.

Magaji accepted the responsibility when he appeared before members of house of representatives ad hoc committee investigating the “disappearance, reappearance, reinstatement and promotion of Maina” in Abuja on Thursday.

According to him, the reference letter made to inform the head of the civil service of the federation that Maina resumed duty was a letter sent to the federal civil service commission.

“When I observed this upon resumption from sick leave, I quickly replied to the head of civil service of the federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, apologising to her about the reference letter,” he said.

“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.

“Whatever the interior ministry has done wrongly in accordance with the way administrative matter has been done to the end of this matter, I take responsibility because I cannot reject it.

“I am the permanent secretary, head of administration and I take responsibility for any administrative wrongdoing that Ministry of Interior has done.”

Oyo-Ita: Malami failed to keep me in the loop

Earlier, Winifred Oyo-Ita, head of service, had said she was not carried along by Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF), on the letters issued on Maina’s reinstatement.

Oyo-Ita said: “Throughout the period of these correspondences being sent from the AGF’s office to the federal civil service commission, right from the first letter in January, the attorney-general never wrote to the office of head of service directly.

“All the emails were between the AGF and the federal civil service commission and my office was only copied.

“I believe that if the AGF had followed the sequence of events as regards the Maina case, maybe he may have written to my office to get some background information as regards what the last head of service did on the mater but I never got such a direct communication from the AGF and I would not want to jump into what he did not call me into.”