By Baron Ike
Winifred Oyo-Ita, head of Nigeria’s Civil Service was shocked on Wednesday, August 21 when President Muhammadu Buhari rejected her request to proceed on early retirement following the scandal of corruption trailing her recently.
At the inauguration of new ministers on Wednesday, Oyo-Ita made a surprising appearance when she was seen moving into the office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, apparently to get briefing on Buhari’s directive in respect of her plea to retire.
On Thursday, August 22, following the rejection of her offer of early retirement by Buhari, the HoS resumed work.
TheCable reported that Oyo-Ita had last weekend sent in her letter directly to the president following pressure mounted on her to quit the job by her sons, and that insinuations that she was being victimised did not sit well with Buhari, who eventually turned down her offer to retire.
She was recently interrogated by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on allegations she used fronts to execute contracts running into billions of naira (N3billion) when she was a permanent secretary before her appointment as Head of Service by Buhari in 2015.
Oyo-Ita however denied involvement in any scam.
She went off public radar after the EFCC grilling, and was even said to have been hospitalised until Wednesday at the swearing-in of ministers.