The committee, made up of chairmen and vice-chairmen of Senate Committees on Public Service and Establishment; Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters; Financial Crimes and Anti-Corruption; and Internal Affairs laid their report on February 14, 2018.
The Chairman of the panel, Senator Emmanuel Paulker, made the presentation.
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, had on October 24, 2017, set up the panel to probe into the controversial circumstances surrounding Maina’s return to the civil service after being dismissed and declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
During the probe, the Minister of Interior, Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd.) and the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, had appeared once before the Senate panel, while the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), appeared thrice.
Although the panel was mandated to report back to the Senate in two weeks, it did not do so until about four months after.
Also, while the Senate panel conducted its investigative hearings behind closed doors with some of its members lamenting that the venue of next sittings were always unknown, the House of Representatives had conducted a similar probe live on television.
When contacted to explain the delay, a member of the panel and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Financial Crimes and Anti-Corruption, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, referred our correspondent to Paulker.
He also said it was the duty of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business to list the report on the Order Paper for consideration by the chamber.
“I am a member of the committee, I am not the chairman. I ask the chairman; he presented the Senate report and should be following it up with the Committee on Rules and Business,” Utazi said.
Both Paulker and the Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Baba Garbai, did not pick calls made to their telephone lines. They also did not reply a text message sent to them asking them to explain the delay.
While calls made to the telephone lines of the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi-Abdullahi, did not connect, calls to the Vice-Chairman, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, rang out. They also did not reply a text message sent to them as of the time of filing this report on Sunday night.
The Senate had on January 9 asked Malami to explain to Nigerians why he had been “running around the courts” seeking to stop the probe by the National Assembly into Maina’s case.
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