Maina: Presidency refers dismissal to Head of Service

Posted by admin Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Presidency Thursday, February 14th, 2013

By KINGSLEY OMONOBI & BEN AGANDE

ABUJA—The Presidency yesterday pushed the case for the dismissal of the Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Force, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, to the Head of Civil Service, saying it is the only constitutional body that could handle the case of discipline of civil servants.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati said President Goodluck Jonathan was not backing Maina against the Senate as is being speculated in some circles.

The Senate in a unanimous decision gave President Jonathan a two-day ultimatum within which to sack Maina from the Federal Civil Service or risk a frosty relationship with the Senate.

But in an interview, Dr Abati acknowledged that though the Senate has constitutional right to summon anybody, asking for such persons to be sacked has to follow due process of the law.

According to Abati, since the president is an ardent believer in the sanctity of the rule of law, laid down procedure should be followed in addressing issues.

He said: “The Senate has constitutional power to summon anybody. If such a person failed to appear before them, the lawmakers are also empowered to issue warrant of arrest against the person.

“The President has not, in anyway, stood in the way of the Senate in inviting Maina. You will recall that the police even declared him wanted.

President Goodluck Jonathan
“Maina is a civil servant. If he has done something that amounts to a breach of civil service rule, the appropriate office to do the right thing and ensure that due process is followed is the office of the Head of Service of the Federation.

President Jonathan not backing Maina

“Nobody should suggest that the President is backing Maina. It is not an issue for the President.

“There are laid down procedures for handling situations like this. The President believes in due process. It is a matter for the civil service to handle. The President does not have to be disciplining civil servants personally”.

Meanwhile, Police authorities insisted yesterday that they are irrevocably committed to arresting Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina, Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Office, CIPPO, who was earlier declared wanted by the force.

Reiterating the commitment of the force at a parley with newsmen, Force Spokesman, CSP Frank Mba said that no matter what happens and no matter those shielding him, the Police will arrest Maina in accordance with the directive of the Senate

Mba said: “The Nigerian Police Force remains irrevocably committed to finding him. As soon as we lay our hands on him, we will arrest him and take him before the Senate. If you are conversant with policing tradition, you will understand that the declaration of any person wanted is usually necessitated by a need.

“In this case, he was declared wanted because he went into hiding and that made it difficult for the Force to execute the warrant of arrest that was legitimately issued against him”.

On the allegation that Maina was being provided security by the police, Mba said that he had no such security from the Police adding, “Maina has no police officer in his entourage to the best of my knowledge. Even in the press release that we gave, we did say that any citizen who has any information that could help us in finding and executing that order, that person should please pass the information to the appropriate authorities. If anyone has the information on how we can get him, we will be pleased to have it”.

The Force Spokesman said the police will not allow themselves to be pulled into unnecessary controversy, saying “The only thing is that Senate has issued a warrant of arrest on Maina and that is where we come in”.

It will be recalled that the Senate, had on Dec. 13, 2012, issued a Warrant of Arrest against Maina.

The warrant also mandated the Inspector-General of Police to arrest and produce Maina before the Senate Joint Committee on the Investigation of Pension Fund.

The police, on Feb. 1, declared Maina wanted, saying that he had since gone into hiding, making it difficult for them to execute the warrant.

Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, yesterdayday inaugurated a multi-purpose Transit Camp and Insurance Auditorium for use of families of slain Police officer who regularly visit the force headquarters to collect death benefits of their late breadwinners.

Speaking at the occasion, Abubakar said that the one-storey building was designed and constructed by the ‘C’ Department (Works) of the Police at less than N60 million.

This is equally a demonstration of the fact that if we are given the opportunity and money, we can manage our affairs.

“We can be the master of ourselves if we have all what it takes. This structure can stand the test of time,” he said.

Abubakar said that he had directed the decentralisation of the payment of insurance and other benefits to retiring and deceased officers’ next of kin to relieve of the burden of coming to the headquarters, as they now have to collect their insurance benefits to the zone nearest to them.

On the issue of Ganeshe for human rights violations, the Inspector General raised serious concern at a workshop on incorporating human rights manual for police training colleges, saying that the trend must change in accordance with democratic policing.

Represented by the DIG Training, Melvin Akpoyibo, the IG noted that in enforcing the law, the police engage all form of suspects in the society with little or no modern techniques to carry out the assignment.

He said that the issue of human right has assumed global dimension, hence they are moving a step further to make it all encompassing, adding that they are attaching very important role in getting a training manual to reach human rights

In her remarks, the Chairperson, African Commission on Human and People’s right, Dupe Atoki, said that the police need to know about the principles both international and national that guides their operations and guard against torture of suspects.

According to her, the use of this manual can achieve two fundamental goals; create an increasing sense of professionalism and ethics among police officers, and foster a higher level of citizen confidence in the system.

In the current situation it is difficult to achieve certain preconditions for high-level professionalism such as the procurement of advanced technical equipment, the provision of high salaries etc.

However, one can build in preconditions in order to raise the human potential of the police in educational terms. That means that police officers will become more aware of their duties and rights while at the same time becoming more conscious of citizen rights, thus achieving a level of communication which satisfies both sides.

This Manual should offer human rights training relevant to basic police work, designed to provide all the necessary elements for the conduct of human rights training programmes for law enforcement.

Via Vanguardwp_posts