The State House, Abuja, witnessed a mild drama at the Council Chambers yesterday when the Chief of Staff to President Buhari, Abba Kyari, and the Head of Service, Winifred Oyo-Ita, engaged in a heated argument before Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, over the leaked memo concerning the reinstated fugitive and ex-pension boss, Abdulrasheed Maina, into the State House.

A video making the rounds on social media, shows the Public Officers arguing before Osinbajo.

Sources revealed that after the Federal Executive Council meeting, President Muhammadu Buhari summoned Oyo-Ita and Kyari to his office. President Buhari was said to be embarrassed by the confrontation the two senior Officials had in front of other government Officials inside the Council Chambers.

Oyo-Ita, in a memo dated 23rd October, indicted President Buhari in the controversial reinstatement of the wanted former Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, into the Civil Service. Maina, who was dismissed from Office in 2013, was accused of corrupt practices to the tune of N2.1 billion.

Maina was mysteriously reinstated and even made a Director in the Ministry of Interior on 22nd October. After much public outcry, President Buhari on Monday, 23rd October, ordered that Maina be disengaged from the Civil Service and that the Head of Service should present a report on how Maina who had been declared wanted by the EFCC and INTERPOL, found his way into the Civil service.

Oyo-Ita, in a report which she sent on 23rd October, said that President Buhari was aware of the plans to reinstate Maina into the civil service and that she had warned against it. In her Memo, she stated that after a Federal Executive Council meeting on 11th October, she accosted President Buhari and expressed her fears over Maina’s reinstatement. According to her, his reinstatement would make a mockery of the anti-corruption fight of the Administration.

This Memo found its way to the media and has caused a friction in the Presidency.