Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has emerged the standard bearer of the People’s Democratic Party PDP for the forthcoming gubernatorial race.
Details shortly…
BREAKING: The National Working Committee (NWC) of APC, dissolved
Upon recommendation of President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been dissolved.
This was made known through the personal assistant to the President on New Media, at the ongoing Party’s NEC Meeting.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ruling party, is currently convened at the State House, Abuja with President Buhari, VP Osinbajo, Governors, members of the National Working Committee (NWC) and other members of the NEC in attendance.
Details shortly…
Buhari attends APC NEC meeting today
President Muhammadu Buhari will atend the virtual National Executive Council(NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress(APC) on Thursday.
His Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, confirmed this in a statement on Wednesday.
The NEC meeting is scheduled to hold in the State House on Thursday.
The statement said the position of President Buhari was informed by the fact that the law is on the side of Giadom as Acting National Chairman.
“The President has received very convincing advice on the position of the law as far as the situation in the party is concerned and has determined that the law is on the side of Victor Giadom as Acting National Chairman.
“Because will always act in accordance with the law, the President will be attending the virtual meeting Giadom called for tomorrow afternoon.
“We urge the media to stop promoting manufactured controversies and to not give any further room for mischievous interpretations of the law on this matter.
“In addition to the President, the Giadom meeting will, hopefully, be attended by our Governors and the leaders of the National Assembly,” the statement said.
APC NWC vows to shun Gaidom’s led NEC meeting
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress has turned down the invitation to the illegal and unconstitutional National Executive Committee convened by Victor Giadom
In a four- paragraph statement jointly signed by Acting National Chairman, Ntufam Hillard Etagbo Eta and Acting National Secretary Arc. Waziri Bulama, after an emergency NWC meeting that lasted for about four hours, they said attending such a meeting will amount to embracing illegalities and turning a blind eye to the infractions on the Constitution of the party.
The NWC further said that it believed that the President was ill advised.
The statement reads: “We wish to unequivocally state that members of the National Working Committee (NWC) believe that the President was offered wrong advice or blackmailed into lending his weighty office to the illegality of the National Executive Committee meeting purportedly convened by one Victor Giadom on 25th June, 2020.
“We hereby respectfully implore Mr. President to kindly avail himself with facts of the matter regarding the impasse presently experienced by the party so as to guide him in his assessment of the matter because we are sure that the President, if properly advised, would come to the conclusion that the meeting convened by Chief Victor Giadom bothers on illegality and criminality.
“The National Working Committee (NWC) regrets to turn down the invitation to the illegal and unconstitutional National Executive Committee (NEC) convened by Chief Victor Giadom.
“We believe that attending such a meeting will amount to embracing illegalities and turning a blind eye to the infractions on the Constitution of our great Party.”
N-Power Batch C and Matters Arising
By Dan Ochonu
There seems to be an uprising concerning the decision of the Honorable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to introduce new beneficiaries into the N-Power scheme under a revised and robust template that would be of utmost benefit to the teeming youthful population in the country.
I am sure it should be surprising to discerning minds that some people would elect to view things only from the prism of their selfish interest. If this is not the case, I wonder on what basis the beneficiaries under the Batch A and B programme are protesting even with the fact that they have stayed in the programme for over 40 months.
As a first, I think it is essential to understand that the N-Power is a job creation and empowerment programme instituted by the Federal Government of Nigeria through its National Social Investment Programmes. In other words, it’s a skill acquisition programme where youths from various parts of the country are trained in various skills under four broad categories such as N-Power Agro, where volunteers will provide advisory services to farmers across the country disseminate the knowledge that has been aggregated by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the area of extension services. They will also gather data on Nigeria’s agriculture assets
Another category is the N-Power Teach volunteers that are deployed as teachers assistants in primary schools to help improve essential education delivery in Nigeria, and where possible, they will also assist in taking basic education to children in marginalized communities.
The N-Power Health Volunteers help improve and promote preventive healthcare in their communities to vulnerable members of the society, including pregnant women and children and families and individuals.
N-Power Build, Tech and Creative volunteers have received extensive training to help develop and expand their respective skillset, which would help foster innovation and creativity among the youths, while ensuring that they can turn their skills into marketable products. The above explains the N-Power initiative of the Federal Government.
It is therefore pertinent to state that since inception in 2018, the N-Power scheme has catered for over 500,000 youths in the country with 200,000 from Batch A which started in September 2016 and 300,000 from Batch B which kicked off in August 2018. These participants have been trained in various skills as mentioned above that they can deploy to their advantage in future. But ironically, this is not the case as the advocates that have been acting on behalf of these participants wants the programmes to be a permanent and salaried job.
This, in my opinion, is anti-progressive in the sense that they want others to be denied the same opportunity that they had when they enrolled. This is a sad episode if you ask me given the fact that the Batch A and B beneficiaries have elected to let hell loose because the federal government revised the programme to allow room for new beneficiaries under the proposed Batch C programme.
Welcome to Nigeria where patriotism is never the watchword if you decide to stand on the side of truth and to do the right thing, you are regarded as a villain. In my view, the actions of those that have launched an attack on the honorable minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development are nothing but greedy, selfish and against the interest of the country.
If this is not the case, how could one explain a situation where doing the right and putting the interest of the country has become a crime as propagated by the earlier beneficiaries on the N-Power programme. This is a sad tale, and I am glad that someone has decided to change the narrative, not minding the series of coordinated attacks on her.
It must be stated and expressly so that the N-Power initiative is for the generality of Nigerians and not for a few, so seeing it as a birthright is phenomenally wrong in all ramification. This much these set of greedy fellows must come to terms with. It is also unimaginable considering the fact that Nigeria boasts of one of the highest youthful populations in the world.
I think rejigging the N-Power scheme to bring in new people on board is not only a welcome development; it is also an act of purposefulness in a bid to address some of the challenges facing the country.
If only Nigerians would understand that the revised N-Power scheme would run for six months – one year depending on the category. According to available information on the N-Power Scheme website, N-Agro, N-Build, N-Creative and N-Tech will run for six months (with two batches a year), the N-Teach and N-Health part of the programme will run for one year. For the six month programmes, three months will be used for training beneficiaries, while the other three months will be used for mentorship and attachment to partners and stakeholders.
This is indeed brilliant in the sense that more youths would have the opportunity to be enrolled in the scheme in the bid to better their lives, unlike in times past where the programme ran for a duration of 2 years, thereby depriving other qualified candidates the opportunity to benefit from this laudable initiative.
If not for anything, the honorable minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster management and Social Development has indeed justified the confidence reposed in her by Mr. President to ensure rapid and meaningful implementation of the various social intervention programmes of the federal government.
The proposed introduction of the Batch C under the scheme must go as planned because it is not only laudable; it is in the overall interest of the country that would be of immense benefit to the teeming youths in the country because over 400,000 new beneficiaries would be admitted into the programme in the following order: 200,000 beneficiaries into the N-Power Agro programme, 80,000 into the N-Power Teach Programme, 40,000 into the N-Health Programme, and 80,000 into the N-Power Build, Creative and Tech categories.
I commend the minister in this regard and encourage her not to relent in her valuable service to the country. And those that think that they have a birthright to stay put for life in the N-Power scheme should have a rethink and retrace their steps. It is expected that the knowledge and experience garnered over 40 months should be put to use for the benefit of the country.
The N-Power C project must go ahead as planned. The minister must not back down despite the avalanche of attack on her person so long the overarching objective is ensuring that more youths are accommodated in the scheme. This is what Nigeria needs, and our support for the likes of Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouq should be unflinching.
Ochonu is an unemployed youth and wrote this piece from MAKURDI, Benue State.
Coalition of Northern Groups accused of receiving N500m to shed crocodile tears over security challenges in Nigeria
The League of Northern Groups (LNG) has accused the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) of receiving N500m to weep in public over the security situation in the country.
According to LNG, the Coalition is nothing but a band of merchant sponsored by top politicians behind the continuous killing of innocent Nigerians in the north to run its propaganda.
Speaking on behalf of the group at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, LNG’s Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Aminu Abubakar, said it aims to address the growing misinformation about the security situation in the north, especially at a time it has been hijacked by some disgruntled politicians.
From carrying out protests, LNG revealed that the northern coalition’s job has grown into a propaganda wing, inflating casualty figures from incidents of security breaches.
The aim, it said, is to ultimately pressure President Muhammadu Buhari to sack his military chiefs and failure to do so has seen renewed killings and campaigns.
Among others, the League of Northern Groups challenged CNG to publish details of its financing with particular emphasis to the identity of donors.
It further called on the coalition to explain its ties with a former presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
LNG, however, confessed that it is praying for the Coalition of Northern Groups to repent and stop supporting evil.
Read the full statement below:
Gentlemen of the press. We will like to start by appealing that everyone here present does their utmost best to conform to the protocols prescribed for the control of COVID-19 throughout their stay here. The League of Northern Youth Groups (NYFG) is a law-abiding organization and is fully supportive of efforts to curb the spread of the virus. We thank you as you cooperate with us to support the ongoing efforts to keep Nigerians and each other safe.
We invited you here today because we find it imperative to alert Nigerians to an upsurge in disinformation and misinformation campaign around the issue of insecurity in the northern parts of the country. Let us digress a little to assert that the expression, “insecurity in the northern part of Nigeria” is in itself a misnomer because there are security concerns across the country. The difference is perhaps the intensity of what obtains in the north. It must also be said that there are security concerns in many countries of the world, including those that are regarded as advanced with the difference being in how the situation of each specific country is reported.
What stands the situation in the north out is the baffling trend where incidents of attacks resulting in the loss of human life have been packaged into a business. This business has instigators, dissatisfied politicians, who have been discovered to be the ones sponsoring the spate of violence in pursuit of whatever twisted objective it is they want to achieve. The manifestation of this dangerous class of people in recent days is the manner in which they are referring to the deaths they have caused as the basis for President Muhammadu Buhari to sack his military chiefs as if that very act being proposed is a pre-condition to stop further torment of the citizens they are killing.
There are also the foot soldiers that assist these killers recruited by these politicians in perpetuating and amplifying the terrorism unleashed on citizens through propaganda that distorts reality on a mind-boggling scale. These are groups that often inflate casualty figures from incidents of security breaches in a way that glorify the killers, demonize the government, demoralize the security and military personnel while further traumatizing survivors. Such groups have increased their activities in recent weeks, which not surprisingly corresponds with the time their political overlords were baying for the sack of military chiefs.
We have identified the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) as one of these groups that have been terrorizing Nigerians with propaganda. The group recently alleged that 240 persons have been killed in the last week. Gentlemen of the press, note that this approach by CNG marks an escalation to the protests they had hoped to use in grounding the country – their resort to compiling seemingly depressing tallies instead of protests means that they have moved their attacks against the state from the physical to the psychological. It is a strategy to instil fear in the population so that the killers sent out by their masters will meet communities that are already emotionally defeated and are therefore easy to attack.
It is crucial that no one is misled into believing that the gentlemen behind the Coalition of Northern Groups are engaged in legitimate activism, which would imply that any damage done in the course of their agitations was unintended. Far from it. These are no activists but economically activated activists, who are in it for what they have been paid as opposed to a passion for the improvement of their communities. What we have learnt is that the Coalition of Northern Groups is on the take and was paid 500 million naira by the top politicians behind the continuous killing of innocent Nigerians in the north in order for it to run its propaganda. A coalition of Northern Groups is nothing but a band of merchants of death running the propaganda wing of the sponsors of terrorism in the north.
So that this matter can be given the right context, we are challenging the Coalition of Northern Youth as follow:
CNG should dare publish details of its financing with particular emphasis to the identity of donors, including flagging the ones that politically exposed persons among them provides.
The Coalition should explain its link or connection with the former presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, including coming clear on the nature of instructions they have received from him or his agents as well as the financial relationship of the group to Atiku and his businesses.
CNG should explain its link with the bandits in the north as well as Boko Haram since it is able to keep such a tally of body count from the attacks carried out by these bandits. It is no mere coincidence that there is usually a lull in attacks when the coalition is carrying out its protests.
It should disclose its relationship with foreign or international NGOs, with details on the nature of interactions they have had in the last three months since there are uncanny similarities between the formats they have adopted in demonizing the government and the attack plan being executed by an organization like Amnesty International.
They should also disclose the groups and persons it has made payments to in recent weeks since such illicit payments are now known to have been used to mobilize the protests against the government.
Should it be unable to come up with satisfactory responses to the posers above, we urge the Coalition of Northern Groups to keep quiet and stop dancing on the grave of the dead. They shame their own families by the very despicable act of pretending to be activists during the day while by night they hobnob with the sponsors and promoters of the killings in northern Nigeria.
Rather than vilifying soldiers and military chiefs that are making sacrifices for the country or attacking the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, they should rather give an ultimatum to their sponsors for the regime of killings that they have instigated to end.
The League of Northern Youth Groups is mindful of the voluntary commitment made by CNG when it said: “In place of the halted protests, the CNG hereby resolves to direct its state coordinators to raise their levels of vigilance and to assist the security forces with credible relevant intelligence needed to tackle the situation.” We will be watching to see the extent to which they will keep to their words and if in reality, they will join the rest of us in supporting the military as we have always done.
The genuineness of their promise will contribute to thwarting the killers that their sponsors had unleashed on the land. We pray that the Coalition of Northern Groups is truly prepared to be repentant and stop supporting evil.
May God heal our land.
Insecurity: Community-based organizations reiterate support for President Buhari, Service Chiefs in the fight against insurgency, banditry
A group of community-based organizations, under the auspices of People’s Parliament, have vowed to maintain total support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and the Service Chiefs in the fight against insurgency.
The group made this known in a communique signed by George Gondo and Adamu Bagudu, its Chairman and Secretary respectively and addressed by Gabriel Agibi on Wednesday in Abuja.
People’s Parliament, which also comprises of faith-based organizations, NGOs such as Grasshoot Peace Initiative and United Nigeria Forum, rising from an extraordinary emergency assembly held in Abuja and monitored on Skype and zoom, maintained that the President and his Service Chiefs have demonstrated capacity, willpower and the expertise to rid the country of terrorism, banditry and other crimes and would require the total support of all Nigerians to deliver absolute peace across the country.
While the military has done its part to end insurgency, terrorism, banditry and other crimes, the group acknowledged that some government officials and stakeholders have not been forthcoming.
People’s Parliament, however, called on state governors and stakeholders to play their own part, as all hands must be on deck to defeat the remnants of the Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists who are attempting to regroup to unleash further heinous atrocities on citizens.
The group said it overwhelmingly passed a vote of confidence on President Buhari and his security architecture, advising the already decimated Islamic fighters to surrender now they have the chance.
Read full communique below:
The meeting was convened by the People’s Parliament with support from the Global Amnesty Watch and deliberated extensively on the state o,f affairs in Nigeria especially the security situation in the country.
Participants took their time to contribute to the discussions and after extensive deliberations on the issues which centred on the performance of the Military and other stakeholders in the current war against insurgency, terrorism, banditry and other crimes in Nigeria, made the following observations:
That Nigeria has not arrived at its desired destination as far as the security of the country is concerned.
That there has however been a great improvement in the security of the country in the last five years.
That the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has shown commitment towards ending terrorism and insurgency as well as other forms of crime in the country.
That the President’s determination to secure all citizens and others living in Nigeria and the territorial integrity of the country, has been demonstrated through making the right appointments in the armed forces, providing adequate funding and the procurement of weapons for troops engaged in the battle against terrorism and insurgency.
That while the armed forces have been relentless in the fight against insurgency, terrorism, banditry and other crime, some top security personnel and other stakeholders have not been forthcoming in that regard.
That much ground has been covered in the bid to put the Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists out of business since the Chief of Army Staff relocated to the theatre of operation in the Northeast in March.
That the recent attacks in Gubio, Borno State and in Faskari, Katsina State are quite unfortunate.
That the attacks in Gubio, Borno State and in communities in Faskari Local Government of Katsina State could have been avoided if other top security officials and stakeholders have been alive to their responsibilities.
That it is the failure of intelligence gathering, inability to infiltrate the camps of the insurgents and lack of consultation with stakeholders, that are responsible for such security breaches.
That rather than gain relevance through the supply of actionable intelligence for troops, top security officials are more concerned about blackmailing the service chiefs to feather their own nests.
That state governours of the affected states, as chief security officers of their respective states, appears not to have been properly briefed about their expected roles in the fight against insurgency and terrorism.
That the recent meeting of the President with top security personnel and service chiefs is a step in the right direction.
In the light of the above observations by the participants at the meeting, the following courses of action were recommended to bring to an end the scourge of terrorism and insurgency as well as curb the level of violence and crime in Nigeria.
Recommendations:
All stakeholders in the security structure of the country just as a matter of urgency, put hands on deck to enable Nigeria to defeat the remnants of the Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists groups who are attempting to regroup to unleash further heinous atrocities on citizens of this country.
All CBOs, CSOs and FBOs, as well as the general public, should expose any individual or group of persons suspected to be behind or aiding the crimes of terrorism, insurgency and other related crimes in Nigeria.
Security agencies charged with investigations and intelligence gathering must step up their game to provide actionable intelligence to troops so as to complement what the military is doing at the battlefield.
The military should not relent or be discouraged by the current setback in Gubio and Faskari Local Governments of Borno and Katsina States respectively but sustain the push against the remnants of the terrorist groups until they are defeated.
The Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists as well as other bandits operating in the Northwestern part of the country should take advantage of the current window and surrender as they indicated doing some months back and not be deceived that they can withstand the military.
Governors in the North must go beyond calling for meetings only after attacks on communities have taken place to take proactive measures to prevent such.
The meeting passed a vote of confidence on President Muhammadu Buhari and his security architecture believing that with the total support and collaboration from the Nigerian people, the final defeat of Boko Haram and all the criminal elements operating in Nigeria would soon be accomplished.
The Military and other security agencies should collaborate to bring not just the fighters but collaborators, sponsors and promoters of the group to book.
The meeting has made these recommendations believing sincerely that it will go a long way in stamping out the security challenges in the country.
Operation Hadarin Daji: Troops Crush Armed Bandits’ Camps, Neutralize Scores of Fighters in Katsina, Zamfara States
Scores of armed bandits have been killed and their camps destroyed following targeted bombardments of their locations in Katsina and Zamfara States.
In a statement, Coordinator Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen John Enenche said the operation is part of efforts to rid the North West and North Central States of the Country of armed bandits and other criminal elements.
Consequently, the Air Component of Operation HADARIN DAJI launched a subsidiary air interdiction Operation, codenamed WUTAN DAJI.
The Operation, which was preceded by the massive deployment of additional air assets and ground support equipment by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) to Katsina, is aimed at taking out armed bandits’ locations that were painstakingly selected, based on impeccable Human Intelligence (HUMINT) reports as well as series of Surveillance missions, in order to significantly degrade the armed bandits’ fighting capability before it could be brought to bear against friendly forces or innocent civilians.
Since the operation began on 20 June 2020, 10 locations have been attacked and scores of armed bandits neutralized, as confirmed by HUMINT reports. Some of the significant air strikes include those executed at Dutsen Asolo and Birnin Kogo areas of Katsina State as well as at Dogo Gede’s Camp in the Kwayanbana Forest area of Zamfara State.
At Dutsen Asolo, NAF jets dispatched by the Air Component attacked the cave/hideout of the bandits, destroying the main entry point and neutralizing some fighters. Some surviving bandits, who were tracked escaping from the cave area were taken out in follow-on strikes. Also, on 21 June 2020, at the bandits’ enclave in the Kwayanbana Forest, an attack helicopter took out one of the bandits’ logistics huts, which was seen engulfed in flames.
Similarly, at Birnin Kogo on 22 June 2020, some armed bandits, who fled their dwellings in the centre of the camp to nearby bushes on hearing the sound of the attack aircraft, were neutralized as the NAF fighter jets hit them at their hiding positions.
The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, who was in Katsina to oversee the Operation, has commended the Air Component of Operation HADARIN DAJI for their professionalism. He has urged them to remain resolute in the conduct of air strikes whilst continuing to provide close air support for ongoing ground operations in order to eradicate all armed bandits; thus accomplishing the directives of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) to restore normalcy in the North West and North Central Zones of the Country.
Herdsmen/Farmers Crisis: FG, Nigerian Army have restored peace to most warring communities in Nigeria – Report
A report by the Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET) has hailed the Federal Government and Nigerian Army for halting the age-long farmers-herders crisis ravaging parts of the country.
The well-documented report detailed how President Muhammadu Buhari and the Army miraculously restored peace to warring communities to end the perennial clashes.
Barely a month after being sworn-in, President Buhari, in June 2015, constituted a Strategic Action Committee to look into herders-farmers crisis and make recommendations that would address it.
Without this intervention, the centre reckoned that perhaps the nation would have ultimately slid into chaos along religious and ethnic lines which would have in turn had a toll on the economy.
According to the report, from all available indices, no Nigerian community is under occupation by herdsmen even though the herders-farmers conflict has become more significant in recent times.
“Although the government had in the past taken some measures to address this phenomenon, the increasing desertification and the effects of climate change have further increased the drive for the herdsmen to move further south in search of grazing land and pasture for their livestock,” the report said.
“These southward movements always pitch them against farmers and the host community whose crops are regularly invaded and destroyed by the cattle during this seasonal movement. The result of this is increased conflict, death, displacement and the destruction of properties. However, because the phenomenon is a human security issue, there is a need for a concerted effort at state, national, regional and international levels to address the challenges, especially since there is no specific legislation that is dedicated to addressing the peculiar needs of herders and farmers in the country.”
Among others, the report, however, urged the FG to deploy more security personnel in “affected areas; ensure they are better equipped; improve local ties to gather better intelligence, and respond speedily to early warnings and distress calls”.
It further called for the freezing of enforcement and reform of state anti-grazing legislation as well as heightened herder-farmer dialogues.
“The Benue state government should freeze enforcement of its law banning open grazing, as Taraba state has already done, and amend objectionable provisions therein,” the report recommended.
“It should also help herders become ranchers, including by developing pilot or demonstration ranches, and conducting education programs for herders uneasy about making the transition.”
Anti-Corruption: Group Writes Buhari, Wants Report on Investigation of Perm-Sec Public
Following the petition against the permanent secretary, federal ministry of mines Mr Sunday Edet Akpan over false qualifications and use of questionable academic records, the Coalition of Civil Society Groups for Justice has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to expedite actions.
Speaking to newsmen after submitting a copy of the petition at the state house Abuja, convener Kabiru Dallah called on the president to prevail on the relevant agencies to make the report public.
Comrade Dallah wondered why in spite of the variance in age as against what is obtainable in the IPPIS, Mr Akpan has continued to remain in office.
A copy of the letter reads below.
26th June, 2020
His Excellency
President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR,
President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces
Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Presidential Villa,
Three Arm Zone,
Abuja.
Your Excellency Sir,
PRESENTATION OF FALSE QUALIFICATIONS AND USE OF QUESTIONABLE ACADEMIC RECORDS BY MR. SUNDAY EDET AKPAN, PERMANENT SECRETARY OF THE MINISTRY OF MINES: AN URGENT NEED FOR INVESTIGATION AND ACTION TO PRESERVE THE INTEGRITY OF THE NIGERIAN PUBLIC SERVICE
The caption above respectfully refers.
The Coalition of Civil Society Groups for Justice is a group of likeminded civil society organizations with a clear mandate to amplify the voice of our member organizations to ensure that clear laid down standards in the conduct of government business at all levels. In executing our mandate, we scrutinize the rules and ensure that the conduct of all government officials is based on the rules and above all else in the interest of the citizens of Nigeria and the future sustainability of our country.
Our attention has been drawn to the fact that a very senior government official in the person of Mr. Sunday Edet Akpan, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, presented falsified documented information and records to perpetrate him in office beyond the legally approved limit.
According to records the said Mr. Sunday Edet Akpan, who began his public service career in the Akwa Ibom state civil service, before transferring to the Federal Civil Service in 1999:
Falsified his birth records, changing same from his original birth date of 1958 to 1962, meaning that he ought to have retired in 2018 when he attained the retirement age of 60years. This in clear violation of the Public Service Rule 020108 (ii), which states inter alia “Date of birth recorded on appointment by an officer shall not be changed throughout the career of the officer. Any contravention shall be regarded as an act of serious misconduct”.
Claimed to have started his educational pursuit in 1965, at the Qua Iboe Science Secondary School (Etinan Institute), even though the documentary evidence to support this claim is no longer in his file.
By his claim started primary schooling at the age of 3, which cannot hold against any know logic or convention of that time period or any other in the history of Nigeria.
Rose to the highest rank in the civil service and has prolonged his stay in office, while shutting out several other Nigerians who are better qualified and more suitable to progress in their careers.
Has brought into question the integrity of the entire public service system, having impugned and impeached the basis of recruitment, promotion and compensation in the public service, based on honest records. The Public Service Rules state clearly, according to Rule 020701 (c), that “Promotion shall be made strictly on the basis of competitive merit from amongst all eligible candidates”, and a character that has tampered with personal records for personal gain at public expense cannot be said to be an “eligible candidate” for promotion.
Based on the above, Mr Sunday Edet Akpan, is a threat to the time honoured integrity of the civil service system of Nigeria and there is a need for action to be taken urgently to redeem this institution to align it with the new Nigeria your administration is building on probity and zero tolerance for corruption in any shape or form. We therefore call on Your Excellency to use your good offices to accede to our prayers as follows:
That the said Mr. Sunday Edet Akpan be relieved of his duties in the Nigerian Civil Service, to restore public confidence in the service and to dissuade other officers from taking this disdainful course, pending a full investigation of the matter.
That Your Excellency cause an independent panel of inquiry to be set up to probe the circumstances surrounding this grave infraction, with a view to uncovering all who are complicit in this grievous cover-up to hoodwink the good people of Nigeria and swindle the treasury of undeserved expenditure and influence peddling.
That the said Mr. Sunday Akpan be prosecuted and caused to return all remuneration given to him beyond his legally recognized stay in office.
We have no doubt that the boasts of Mr. Akpan that he has “very powerful people in the highest levels of government”, would hold no water with your decades long reputation for confronting the most powerful elements of our society in the interest of the masses. We are indeed confident that justice will be served in this matter, to set a precedent of good conduct expected of public officers in Nigeria.
We anticipate Your Excellency’s prompt action on this national emergency so as not to provide cannon fodder for those who wish to discredit the good work being done by this administration to right the decades old ways of doing things based on the whims of a few to the detriment of the masses.
Accept, Your Excellency, the assurance of our highest esteem and continued assurance of providing support for all policies and programmes aimed at bettering the lot of the people of Nigeria.
Kabiru Ibrahim Dallah
President
CC:
Secretary to the Government of the Federation
Head of Service of the Federation
Director General, State Security Services
Inspector General, Nigeria Police Force
Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Petitions
Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions
