By Daniel Idonor

ABUJA — PRESIDENT Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has approved the appointment of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Mr Steve Oronsanye as the new Head of Service of the Federation (HOSF), following a similar approval yesterday by the President of the retirement of the incumbent HOSF, Ms Ama Pepple, who has attained the mandatory retirement after 35 years in service.

Presidential spokesman, Mr Olusegun Adeniyi, told State House Correspondents after the extra-ordinary Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting which held yesterday that both the retirement and fresh appointment take effect from Monday 15 June, 2009.

Pepple, an indigene of Rivers State who was appointed on June 16, 2008, following the retirement of Mrs Ebele Okeke who served in that capacity for just seven months, had put in exactly one year before her retirement.

On the other hand, the new HOSF, Oronsanye, an accountant, who hails from Edo state, until his redeployment to the Finance Ministry had served in the State House as a permanent secretary.