PROBABLY result in a Breach of Established Procedure. This is because
there is a Presumption of Regularity that every Official Act had been
complied with prior to the forwarding of the Memo to the Governor. There is
no contrary evidence before the Court to show some form of abeyance or
redundancy in any of the Offices/Officers. An example, is where Mrs. Asabe
Maiangwa, at the time she went on her Two Week Leave, her Immediate
Subordinate, the Secretary in the Ministry of Finance deputized for her and
this a Logical Procedure in the Civil Service.
From the evidence of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance,
Mrs. Asabe Maiangwa, she stated clearly that she was only aware of the
Memo in Exhibit CC and in fact she was away on Leave at the relevant time
the Memo was approved. Following Civil Service Rules, in her absence, she
was to delegate her responsibilities to her Immediate Subordinate, who in
this case, is the Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Jonah Mamman. She
never mentioned the name Mr. Bello Mohammed Ibrahim or mentioned that
she assigned any role to Mr. Bello Mohammed Ibrahim, who from the
evidence of PW6, Mr. Abdulkadir Nagari, described Mr. Bello Mohammed
Ibrahim, as an Administrative Officer. The Role of Mr. Bello Mohammed
Ibrahim, as Administrative Staff did not feature anywhere in the evidence
and there is reason to wonder why an Inferior Officer would be delegated
the responsibility of writing to the Accountant General to release the Funds,
when in fact, the next in line is the Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, who
is a Superior Officer.
It simply does not make any sense!
According to the Memo, it was the Ministry of Finance’s Statutory Function
to Purchase these Stationeries and Office Equipment, not only for itself, but
also on behalf of other Ministries, Boards and Parastatals, especially when
the demand arose from the daily increase in the volume of Government
Activities. In the Memo, the Commissioner noted that the Last Batch had
since been exhausted and there was need to replenish the Stores. He stated
the effect of non-availability of the Stationeries and Office Equipment and on
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