In this interview with KAYODE ADEOTI, one of the renowned legal practitioners in Kwara State, Kehinde Kolawole Eleja SAN, bares his mind on the controversy trailing the reinstatement of former Chairman of the Defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrashed Maina, and the drama that played out among the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), Department of State Security (DSS) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), among other sundry issues.
There seems to be lots of shady deals about the corruption allegation against the former Chairman of the Defunct Pension Reform Task Team Abdulrashed Maina, can you shed light on the matter?
The issue of Maina has generated so much interest, I must say, the facts are still sketchy about it because I’m aware there is an ongoing probe or proceedings at the House of Representatives of Federal Republic of Nigeria, therefore I may not be able to give adequate opinion on the development. However, from what is made available, it is clear that he was arrested at a time; he was alleged also to have diverted some funds. Of course, he went to court and got some orders. He was interdicted at some point, and the implication of that in law is that, there was room for further investigation. If there were other negative findings that were made, that could suggest his removal under the civil service rule. I believe that was not done. Then, he said he got order from court which entitled him to be reinstated to his position. I think the appropriate thing for his employer, Federal Civil Service Commission is to put him through trial now so that his guilt or otherwise could be proved. With that, his employer will have the option of sanctioning him either by way of dismissal, retirement, reprimand, caution or any other administrative action. Unless that is done, no matter how heinous or condemnable his conduct may have appeared, the position of the law will still be that he is still in service. It is unfortunate that the Federal Government has allowed it drag on for too long
Would you say there are some politics in the development of this matter?
There appears to be some veiled events that have been shielded from members of the public, information at our disposal is still scanty. If somebody is on interdiction, what is going to be the justification of a senior, assigning such officer with responsibility? That is an indirect way of clearing him of the allegation he was interdicted for in the first place. I don’t think it is proper. Federal Government will have to seriously look inward as far as that commission is concerned so that such incongruous situation will be prevented in the future
What do you think the EFCC should have done to avoid the drama that played out while it was trying to arrest NIA and DSS bosses?
What played out last week over the botched attempt to arrest the erstwhile boss of the NIA and the DSS is a national embarrassment, it only shows that all is not well with the government of the day. It is also a carryover of the mindsets of the former occupiers of these offices. When you pretend to be above the law, when you do things whimsically, when you don’t accord law as state officers who are in charge of sensitive organisations; that is the kind of result that you will get. Quite frankly, government did not handle the matter properly as well. The DSS, NIA and EFCC are agencies of the state. Incidentally, they all belong to the executive arms of government, at political level, we have a coordinating body, office of the Secretary of the Government, in the Civil Service; we have the office of the Head of Service. I think collaboration between these offices would have prevented the kind of embarrassment we witnessed. My thought is that, the EFCC should have invited these personalities rather than attempting their arrest. In the immediate past, there have been rivalries among these agencies. The DSS turning a report in, indicting the chairman of EFCC, which the Senate relied upon to deny EFCC boss confirmation when he was been presented by the Presidency. In a way, one may want to see this as a way of vendetta to get back at DSS just to demonstrate that EFCC is more powerful than NIA and DSS, it is a show of power. Let me make it very clear, once there is an order of the court, no matter the status of any person, he has the duty to respect such an order.
The 2019 general election is fast approaching and preparation for it has been greeted with defections of politicians from one party to the other, the recent one is that of the former vice president Atiku Abubakar which has been greatly faulted by members of the public as frivolous…? Does the constitution provide number of times politician can defect?
A right to association is a right that is described as fundamental by the constitution. The purpose of that is that any person has the liberty to associate freely with others either formally or informally and there is no restriction to the number of times that somebody may move from one platform to the other. The qualification will be in respect of those who are occupying legislative positions, the law state that certain conditions must be met; otherwise it will be wrong for a person to defect from a platform on which he assumed membership of the legislative body. Once that is not the case as politician, you could move from one party to the other as long as you feel your interest is protected. In Nigeria, it is very easy because there is hardly distinction between the ideologies and manifestos of our political parties. What informs the defection is always the possibility of prospect of the actualisation of the political ambition or interest. That is why in APC today, most of its overwhelming members were once PDP.
