Maina: Keyamo faults Malami, blasts HoS for ‘whispering’ to Buhari

Festus Keyamo, SAN, has faulted how the Head of Service, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, confronted President Muhammadu Buhari over the reinstatement of former Chairman of the Pension Reforms Commission, Mallam Abdulrasheed Maina, into the civil service.

Keyamo said the HoS was dodgy in the role she played in the saga.

He also criticised Oyo-Ita’s claim that she called the president aside after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on October 11, where she vervbaly warned Buhari against bringing Maina back to the service.

Keyamo said the HoS breached the standard bureaucratic practice by calling Buhari aside and whispering to his ear, rather than putting her views in writing.

“I have read her memo very well where she said after the FEC meeting, she called the president aside, and spoke to him orally. Government is all about bureaucracy and not oral communication,” Thisday quoted him as saying.

“If she had reservations about Maina recall, she should have put it to the president in black and white for him to look at it. Whispering in itself is not a standard procedure in bureaucracy. She can not whisper into the ears of the president as if it was a secret society”.

Keyamo insisted that Malami’s memo to Oyo-Ita was only advisory and that if she was opposed to the reinstatement of Maina to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, she should have carried out her objection in writing to the president.

He added that the AGF got the matter wrongly and should have handled it differently by helping EFCC to appeal the court judgment brought by Maina, instead of reinstating the erstwhile Pensions Reforms Commission boss.

“The whole saga is messy. First from the angle of the AGF, who is my friend and brother in Silk. I would have preferred he handled it differently.

“If you have a court judgement restraining a law agency from doing their job, that is, somebody wants you to clarify certain allegations against you, the person ran away only for him to come with a court judgement.

“As the chief law officer, he should help the system by appealing the judgement. That particular judgement did not augur well for the anti- corruption crusade,” Keyamo said.