A former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, on Wednesday applied to be joined as a party in a suit filed by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to stop the Senate from probing into his (Maina’s) controversial reinstatement into the civil service.
Justice Binta Nyako on Wednesday adjourned the suit till March 10 to enable Mr Maina to regularise his processes.
But the judge noted that she was adjourning for the hearing of the substantive suit which was already “ripe for hearing”.
She said she would only hear Mr Maina’s application if it had been regularised before the next hearing date.
In his substantive suit, the AGF prayed the court to determine whether the National Assembly had the right to probe issues relating to the “employment, attendance at work, disengagement, reinstatement and or promotion of a civil servant.”
He also asked the court to declare that “the employment, attendance at work, disengagement, reinstatement and or promotion of a civil servant are matters outside the exclusive and concurrent legislative lists contained in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
“The National Assembly lacks the legislative competence to investigate the employment, attendance at work, disengagement, reinstatement and or promotion of a civil servant which are matters exclusively within the purview of the Federal Civil Service Commission under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).”
The AGF contended that the power of investigation vested in the National Assembly by Section 88 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) was limited.
