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Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun (Photo Credit: Chronicle.ng)A former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has knocked President Muhammadu Buhari for not taking action on the certificate forgery scandal involving finance minister, Kemi Adeosun.
Mr Abubakar also flayed the president for not punishing officials involved in the controversial recall of fugitive civil servant, Abdulrasheed Maina, last year.
In a statement by Mr Abubakar’s media adviser, Paul Ibe, on Thursday, the former said with those unresolved issues bogging his presidency, Mr Buhari cannot lay claim to being “uncompromising”.
Both episodes were exclusively reported by PREMIUM TIMES, over the last one year. The government did not resolve any of the scandals or punish those involved.
In October, this newspaper reported how Mr Maina, who was dismissed from service for refusing to answer to summons on corruption charges, was secretly reinstated into the civil service.
Nigeria’s Attorney General, Abubakar Malami, was later discovered to have played central role in Mr Maina’s recall. He also frustrated an attempt by members of the National Assembly to probe the scandal.
Eight months later, PREMIUM TIMES published details of how Mrs Adeosun skipped the mandatory one year national serviceadministered by National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), though she was eligible to participate in the scheme.
Instead of serving the country, the minister parades a purported exemption certificate from the scheme, a document that was discovered to be fake.
In his statement on Thursday, Mr Abubakar rhetorically asked, “How uncompromising a President can be when he allows a minister accused of forgery to remain at her job?”
He also questioned why action was not taken on Mr Malami for his roles in the MainaGate.
“Why did the Presidency do nothing as the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, went to court to secure a kangaroo court order to stop the Senate of the National Assembly from investigating who recalled, reinstated and double promoted Abdulrasheed Maina?”
LINGERING SCANDALS
Despite widespread public uproar over the two scandals, the Buhari administration remained unperturbed over the two clear cases of fraudulent acts.
While partial action was taken on the MainaGate, with the government reversing the recall, those who were responsible for the action have remained in their posts.
Mr Malami and minister of interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, were uncovered to be behind the recall and promotion of Mr Maina, without him facing his pending trial.
A memo by the Head of the Civil Service of the federation submitted to Mr Buhari at the time, clearly indicted Mr Malami and Mr Dambazau. No action was however taken on the two men.
Mr Maina is also yet to be brought to face his charges, despite the anticorruption agency, the EFCC declaring him wanted.
PREMIUM TIMES at the time discovered that the dismissed civil servant was moving about under of operatives of the State Security Service (SSS), and was living in a safe house of the service in Abuja. A policeman was also guarding one of his houses visited by our reporter at the time.
In the case of Mrs Adeosun, over 60 days since the publication of the messy affair, the federal government has declined to comprehensively speak on the scandal, or take any action.
Nigerians have expressed outrage over the “contemptuous silence” maintained by both the minister and the presidency, her employers.
Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, only referred journalists to a half-hearted statement issued by the NYSC which is not categorical on the position of the Corps on the issue. Updates promised Nigerians are not forthcoming seven weeks after.
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