Niger Delta Development Commission
… As Senate Insists that No amount of Intimidation, Blackmail will Stop its Probe
By Henry Umoru
THE Federal Civil Service Commission, FCSC said yesterday that the random selection method used by the Interim Management Committee, IMC of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC to sack its Senior Management Staff is strange to it as a Commission.
Speaking yesterday in Abuja during the sitting of the Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Delta North led Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Director, Disc and Appeals of the FCSC, Ojuh Agatha told the Committee that the method is strange and not known to the Civil Service, just as she said that it is a breach of the Civil Service rule.
Also read: NDDC N40b probe: Senate lampoons IMC, says no amount of intimidation will stop investigation
According to her, if there was an established Prima Facie evidence against any officer, there will be a suspension in order to ensure that there was an unhindered investigation.
She said that the Commission was aware of a development in the NDDC and that due processes were not observed by the Commission prior to the sack of some Management Staff.
Earlier, the Counsel to the sacked staff of NDDC, Barrister Patrick Akan in his presentation said that sacked staff were opposed to the complete breach of procedure and recklessness in stealing public funds and advised against it, just as he said that there was no procedure for their removal as the exercise was carried out randomly by the IMC.
Akan who called for the immediate reversal of what he described as illegal disciplinary action taken against some Senior Management staff of the NDDC through mandatory leave and Compulsory retirement.
He said, ” that under the law and the NDDC conditions of Service, only a legally constituted Governing Board has the power to authorize and approve the promotion of officers on grade level 14 and above. It is also the Board that is vested with the power to discipline this category of senior staff in accordance with the law.”
The lawyer said that the affected Management Staff have not been afforded the right of fair hearing and that the action taken against them did not follow the procedure prescribed by the Conditions of Service.
Recall that the Senate had on May 5, mandated its Senator Peter Nwaoboshi led Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs to investigate the appropriateness of the alleged arbitrary sack of the management staff of the Commission and report back at Plenary in four weeks.
Resolutions of the Senate were sequel to a motion titled, “Urgent Need to Investigate Alleged Financial Recklessness in the Niger Delta Development Commission ( NDDC)” and sponsored by Senator Thompson George Sekibo, PDP Rivers East.
In his remarks yesterday, Senator Nwaoboshi
who opened an investigative hearing on the sack of top management staff of the Commission, said that the investigation has nothing to do with the alleged recklessness in the IMC, but for the sacked Management staff.
Nwaoboshi who explained that the Investigation was necessitated by the petition forwarded to the Senate by the victims, said that as People’s representative, it was within their Parliamentary responsibility to listen, reiterating that no amount of intimidation and blackmail would stop the investigation.
According to him, Federal Civil Servants are guided by condition of service, noting that there are Disciplinary processes that must be followed before Civil Servants are sacked.
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