The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, has failed to persuade the Federal High Court in Abuja to grant an interim injunction stopping the Senate from going ahead with investigations into the controversial reinstatement of former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, into the Nigerian Civil Service.
Malami, the Minister of Justice, had approached the court to challenge the powers of the National Assembly to investigate circumstances that led to Maina’s recall, four years after he was dismissed by the Federal Civil Service Commission for absconding from duty.
The ex-Pension boss, who was dismissed from service in 2013 following a recommendation by the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, was recalled and reinstated into the Ministry of Interior under controversial circumstances.
His reinstatement was purportedly based on a memo from the office of the AGF.
Maina’s recall sparked-off a public protest that forced President Muhammadu Buhari to order his immediate sack, with the Head of Service, Winifred Oyo-Ita queried.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives constituted different panels to investigate the matter.
Following AGF’s claim that the letters could not have legally emanated from him, the Senate, which had already commenced its own probe, decided to carry out forensic examination of all the correspondences that led to Maina’s reinstatement.
In a bid to stop the process, the AGF, filed the ex-parte motion that was declined by the court on Monday.
He prayed the court to among other things, determine whether the National Assembly has the right to probe issues relating to the “employment, attendance at work, disengagement, reinstatement and or promotion of a civil servant.”
Meantime, instead of granting the ex-parte order to halt further investigation into the matter, Justice Binta Nyako who heard the application in chambers on Monday, ordered the AGF to go and put the National Assembly on notice.
The judge further directed that all the court processes should be served on the National Assembly to enable it to appear before the court to show cause why the orders sought by the AGF should not be granted.
The suit was adjourned till January 15 for the National Assembly to show cause why the ongoing probe should not be stopped.
Comments