News - Court fixes March for Maina’s suit against Senate

[TGD]

 • HOS denies complicity in pensions payment

THE Federal High Court, Abuja Division, Tuesday fixed March 5, 2013, for the adoption of addresses on an action initiated by the embattled Chairman of the Pensions Reform Task Force Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, seeking to quash the warrant for his arrest issued by the Senate.

Meanwhile, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HOCS), Isa Bello Sali, has denied allegations of commandeering the payment of pensions from November 2012 to date, even as pensioners are paid less than their entitlements. He said the complicities were a spillover effect of the missing N195 billion pensions fund still under investigation.

Justice Adamu Bello fixed the said date after the court granted the Senate and 10 other defendants extension of time to regularise their defence.

The other defendants include the Senate President, Clerk of the Senate, Senate Committees on Establishment and Public Service and the State and Local Government Administration. Others are the Inspector General of Police, Senator Aloysius Etuk; Chairman, Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service, as well as Senator Kabiru Gaya, Chairman, Senate Committee on State and Local Government Administration.

Earlier, on February 18, 2013, the judge had granted the defendants three days to regularise their processes.

The other defendants include the Senate President, Clerk of the Senate, Senate Committees on Establishment and Public Service and the State and Local Government Administration.

Others are the Inspector General of Police, Senator Aloysius Etuk, chairman, Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service, as well as Senator Kabiru Gaya, chairman, Senate Committee on State and Local Government Administration.

But when the matter came up yesterday, counsel to the Senate, C. Ikonne, prayed the court for another extension of time to regularise further processes.

Counsel to the IGP, Mrs. Pamela Ohabor, also applied for an extension of time to regularise her client's defence.

Although Maina's counsel, Mr. Mahmud Magaji (SAN), described the applications as ploy to frustrate the hearing on the main suit and opposed it, the court was minded to grant the defendants' request.

Sali said the purported statement by an acclaimed media consultant to the Pensions Reform task Team, Olajide Fashikun, was not only illegitimate but also completely false, as the task force had already been dissolved following presidential directive last week.

A statement from the Sali's office said: "There was a directive by the Presidency to dissolve the task force last week, which has been carried out...and the letter was signed by the Permanent Secretary, Establishment and Records Office, directing each member of staff back to his or her original ministry.

 

Also in a telephone chat with The Guardian Tuesday in Abuja, the Director of Press and Public Affairs to the HOCS, Tope Ajakaiye, said the dissolution of the committee renders whatever correspondence bearing that name illegitimate.

He said: "The position of the Head of Service to the purported release is that we do not recognise that body again. The President has dissolved the team and has ordered members of the team to return to their former offices. So, who is now sponsoring or paying the consultant to write on their behalf?"

Ajakaiye could, however, not confirm if the pension payment is being owed in arrears as suggested by the statement.



The Guardian