Mr. Mohammed Katu, the legal counsel for the former Chairman, Presidential Pension Reform Task Team, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, told the House of Representatives on Thursday that his client was still receiving salaries despite the report that he had been dismissed from service.
He also claimed that Maina treated official files up to last month (October). Maina was not physically present as an ad hoc committee of the House opened its investigative hearing into the disappearance and reinstatement of Maina into the public service in Abuja.
The committee is chaired by a member of the All Progressives Congress from Kano State, Mr . Aliyu Madaki. Katu claimed that his client was not dismissed from service and that he only sought judicial intervention in 2013 when he realised that there was a move to dismiss him from service.
He added that while the litigation was in progress, Maina“disappeared from Nigeria because his life was in danger. Katu said,“He was still working as of June 13th, 2013 after the purported dismissal. He was writing to the Minister of Finance (former Minister, Ngozi Okonjo - Iweala ); so, it is not true that he was dismissed"
According to Katu, his client was still receiving his salaries and emoluments "and he got piles of files to treat up to a month ago”He added, "Maina is still receiving salaries. 23 files were sent to him in his capacity as acting director, even while he was absent . Maina has continued to work even after he was dismissed"
However, when a member of the committee, Mrs. Ayo Omidiran, quoted a 2014 letter Maina wrote to the Federal Civil Service Commission, pleading for a review of his dismissal, Katu insisted that his client was still in service. Omidiran stated, "We are not children here, and let the impression not be created that those of us sitting on this committee do not know what we are doing.
"If Maina wrote to the FCSC to appeal for a review of his dismissal, why would you be saying that he was not dismissed? But, Katu replied, "There are things we have with us and we will submit them when next we come". When asked again, Katu insisted that as far as his client was concerned, he was still in the service.
Source: Punch