The permanent secretary, ministry of interior, Abubakar Magaji, on Thursday took full responsibility for the administrative lapses that lead to the reinstatement of Abdulrasheed Maina, the former chairman, of the Presidential task force on Pension Reform.
The ministry of interior top civil servant owned up to the lapses when he appeared before members of house of representatives ad hoc committee investigating the “disappearance, reappearance, reinstatement and promotion of Maina.
Magaji informed the committee that 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.
He told the committee, “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.
“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.
“I am the permanent secretary, head of administration and I take responsibility for any administrative wrongdoing that Ministry of Interior has done.”
Earlier in her testimony, head of service, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita told the committee that Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF), on all the issues relating to Maina’s unceremonious return to the civil service.
She told the committee, “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.”