Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, made an attempt to blame one of his aides for the reinstatement of former Chairman of Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina into the Federal Civil Service.
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Malami is embroiled in the controversy surrounding Maina’s reinstatement. He is accused of stampeding the Federal Civil Service Commission ( FCSC ) into reinstating the fugitive, and wrote the commission letters requesting for Maina’s reinstatement.
But the minister on Thursday denied the letters emanated from him when he appeared before the Aliyu Madaki-led House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the matter.
He however, passed the buck to one of his aides, whose identity he did not disclose.
The minister said, “That letter of 21 February, when I was confronted with that letter by the Senate, it didn’t ring a bell at all in my memory. What I did was going back to the office to call for the file. And then arising from the file, I could confirm that there was a letter from Miana’s lawyer.
“I could confirm that I treated that letter in February and directed the line officer to treat it. I could confirm that the line officer revert back to a memo expressing an opinion with a draft letter, suggesting that I should direct that Maina should be reinstated.
“I could confirm that my mind was agitated over the content and the conclusion of that letter and I could confirm that I minuted on the letter of April that develop further opinion to convince me that the content and conclusion of the judgement in support of the Maina’s lawyer reasonably suggests a conclusion for a consequential effect to the judgment.
“I could confirm that there was no further correspondence from the line office up to sometime in May when the line officer now came up with additional memo and in that memo tried to justify the conclusion that I could direct for the reinstatement of Maina.
“In that memo, reference was made to court process relating to Indutrial Court in which Maina filed an action against the Federal Government.
“And I could confirm as well that I minuted on that memo directing the officer to make available copies of those court processes that were not made available in support of the memo and I could confirm there was no further correspondence in that regard until sometime in October precisely on the 5th day of October when the line officer came up with a clean – up copy of the letter seeking my endorsement. In that letter, he was making reference to the previous correspondence.
“And when the correspondence and processes could not ring bell in my memory until I read the letter with the hope to reduce the situation, it was the point at which the whole media issue surrounding the matter now evolved. So, what I am saying in essence, my position is as far as Maina’s request for reinstatement was concerned, it was indeed, a work in progress as at the fifth day of October, 2017.”
