Reps tackle Buhari over extension of retired Perm Sec's tenure
The House of Representatives has kicked against President Muhammadu
Buhari’s continued retention in office the Permanent Secretary of the
Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. Jamila Shu’ara, after she has
exceeded the retirement age.
Members of the House Committee on Basic Education and Services, who
took President Buhari on the matter on Thursday, declared that the he
has no power under any of the country’s law to extend the tenure of a
retired civil or public servant who has either by years of service or by
age, reached the retirement period as prescribed in the Civil/Public
Service Rules.
While closing over a month-long investigation into alleged illegal
extension of the services of Shu’ara, the lawmakers asked the Head of
Service of the Federation to invoke the relevant rules to recover all
the emoluments paid to Mrs. Shu’ara for the period of the extension.
The committee had for weeks grilled the Head of Civil Service of the
Federation (HoS), Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, insisting that she must produce
the approval letter purportedly written by the President to extend the
tenure of the permanent secretary.
They asked Oyo-Ita to show where the President derives such powers to grant the extension.
The HoS had insisted on the authority of the President to appoint,
remove or re-appoint persons into offices as enshrined in Section 171
of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
But Hon. Zakari Mohammed, who heads the committee, faulted the stand
of Oyo-Ita and demanded that the HoS furnished the panel with the
letter she wrote to the President’s Chief of Staff on March 17, 2016
communicating Shu’ara’s retirement notice to the Presidency.
Given her inability to produce the President’s letter, the lawmakers
on Tuesday gave her a 72-hour ultimatum which elapsed on Thursday to do
so.
But when she appeared before the committee on Thursday, Oyo-Ita
denied ever writing any letter as quoted by the lawmakers at their
previous sitting. The Authority
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