‘Mailafia was issued query before he resigned from NIPSS’

Embattled former Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Obadiah Mailafia, was issued a query by the management of National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Kuru, Plateau State, before he resigned, Daily Trust gathered.

Mailafia, who was a directing staff at NIPSS, the nation’s prestigious think-tank body, had told journalists that he resigned over the killings in southern Kaduna and that he was not pressured by anyone to do so.

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However, Daily Trust gathered that Mailafia had cited personal reasons in his resignation letter and only did so after a series of meetings with the management of NIPSS following his controversial statements during a radio interview that went viral.

Mailafia, a 2019 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has already honoured two invitations to the Plateau State office of the Department of State Services (DSS) where he was grilled over his allegation that he had intelligence report that an unnamed state governor in northern Nigeria was a commander of the terrorist group, Boko Haram.

The ex-CBN deputy governor had later backtracked and said he had received the information from traders at his village market.

Our correspondent who spoke with sources from NIPSS on Tuesday, learnt that Mailafia had been issued a query by the management in which a section of the Civil Service Rule he violated was quoted to him. “He was asked to reply within 24 hours, failure of which the appropriate law will take its course on him,” a source told our correspondent.

The source, a high ranking staff of the NIPSS said, “There was a need for several management meetings following Mailafia’s violation of the civil service rule and I believe he may have been advised to resign.”

The Director-General of NIPSS, Prof. Habu Galadima, when contacted, confirmed that Mailafia had tendered his resignation which had been accepted by the institute. When asked about the query issued to the former CBN deputy governor, Prof. Galadima said that aspect was purely an internal affair of NIPSS.