Winifred Oyo-Ita, Head of Service of the Federation (HoS), on Thursday expressed reservations with Abubakar Mgaji, Permanent Ministry, for referring to her as “that person” during the House of Representatives hearing into the controversial reinstatement of Abdulrasheed Maina into the civil service.

Both public officers, as well as Abubakar Malami, Attorney General of the Federation; Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance and Ibrahim Magu, Acting Chairman of the EFCC, were at the National assembly to present their cases in the ongoing Maina recall saga.

While making a point during his presentation, Magaji had referred to the HOS as “that person”, but this did not go down well with Oyo-Ita and she did not hesitate to take exceptions.

“I am amazed at the presentation being made by a senior permanent secretary of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to refer to the Head of Civil Service of the Federation as ‘that person,'” Oyo-Ita said.

“I want to tell Engr Magaji: ‘I am not ‘that person’. I have a name.”

Oyo-Ita also criticised Magaji for issuing Maina a reinstatement letter without her approval even though the reinstatement was approved by the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC).

According to Oyo-Ita, since the letter removing Maina from the civil service was endorsed by the Head of Service at the time, “it only stands to reason that the reinstatement letter, which the Federal Civil Service Commission issued to the said Abdulrasheed Maina, would also have been endorsed by the sitting Head of Service”.

“Refusal to take a copy of the endorsed letter to report at the ministry [of interior] and for him to now be given his duties at the interior [was an error],” she added.

Oyo-Ita said she brought this error to the attention of the Permanent Secretary in a letter dated October 26, 2017.

“The Ministry of Interior acted in error to document and deploy Mr A.A Maina by using a copy of the letter addressed to Mr A.A Maina from the Federal Civil Service Commission, which was for information only and not to be acted upon,” she said.

“The original letter … has never been endorsed or released to Mr A.A Maina, and is still in my custody.

“There was no posting instruction for Mr A.A Maina to report to the Ministry of Interior from the office of the Head of Service of the Federation.

“In the Civil Service, if you are employed newly or reinstated, as the case may be, by the FCSC, the officer who is being brought into the service either afresh or on reinstatement has to report to the office of the HOS before he is given his posting to whichever MDA.

“In this instance, Mr Maina was never issued a posting instruction to Ministry of Interior. There are so many issues wrong with the process in which Mr Maina was absorbed back into that Ministry.”

In his reply, Magaji apologised to Oyo-Ita for referring to her as “that person”.

Magaji also accepted responsibility for the letter of reinstatement issued to Maina, saying he was sick when the letter was issued.

“I directed a letter, verbally, to be written to the Head of Service, and the content of that letter, actually I did not know, because I left sick, I was in the hospital seven days after that letter was sent to the Head of Service,” Magaji said.

“Usually, when we direct a letter to be written, we vet the letter, but that time, as I was going I was sick. I couldn’t wait for that letter.

“The Permanent Secretary is the head of administration, I’m here to take responsibility of whatever interior has done wrongly in accordance with the way administrative matter has been taken, to the end of this matter.

“I cannot reject it, I am the Permanent Secretary, Head of Admin. I take responsibility for any administrative wrongdoing that the interior has done, as Permanent Secretary of that ministry.”