”Malami met with Maina in Dubai before reinstatement”

Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF), said he met with Abdulrasheed Maina in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), in 2016. According to The Nation, he disclosed this to the senate ad hoc committee probing the reinstatement of Maina, former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reform Team (PTPT), into the civil service.

Maina is accused of a multi-billion naira pension fraud. After fleeing the country in 2013, he was reinstated under controversial circumstances and promoted to the level of a director in the ministry of interior. But President Muhammadu Buhari ordered his dismissal from the civil service following widespread criticism.

Although Malami refused to speak with journalists after meeting with the committee, The Nation’s report quoted a source privy to his disclosure as saying that: “The committee discovered that three letters were written by the justice minister asking questions from the federal civil service commission (FCSC) on Maina. There is no record that the questions were answered by the FCSC in any correspondence.

“The fourth letter was written by the attorney-general in January as a directive to the civil service commission to reinstate Maina. In the letter, the AGF asked for Maina’s status, his position, rank and next rank. “There was another letter in February where the AGF directed the civil service commission to reinstate Maina. The committee frowned at this because under the constitution, they felt the AGF cannot issue that kind of directive.”

The minister was also said to have admitted to writing all the letters but said he could not remember the contents. The source also said Malami asked the committee to allow him to peruse his files so as to ascertain the content and get back to them.

Abdulrahman Dambazau; minister of interior, Winifred Oyo-Ita, head of service; and Malami are the officials fingered in Maina’s reinstatement. They have all denied any wrongdoing.