A coalition of Civil Society Groups has faulted the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige over the alleged suspension of Managing Director, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, (NSITF) , Mr Bayo Somefun, and other Senior Staff of the outfit.
Conveners of the group, Mr
Danesi Momoh and Comr. Olamide Odumosu who spoke at a press conference in Abuja argued that the suspension of the NSITF boss ran contrary to the procedures for discipline of CEO of Government Parastatals, Agencies and departments in accordance with the Public Service Rules(PSR).
The rights group argued that the Minister acted unilaterally without reference the approval of the President Muhammadu Buhari and the Governing Board of NSITF, the office of the in line with the relevant provisions of the establishment Act and the principle guiding Chapter 3 and 16 of the Public Service Rules.
Decrying the development, the group noted: “To our amazement , non of these procedure was followed by the Hon. Minister . This Clearly Shows That the Minister is acting with Prejudice and Premonitions. Instructively he also threaten the MD with the following words : there are many ways to kill a rat you either give it gamalin to eat , you set a trap for it or you knock it on the head to die .
“This is totally out of order and unacceptable. More to it is that the Hon Minister Sen. Ngige has now brought another head of Procurement to Serve his own purpose, if not Stopped he’ll bring Chaos to the Organisation and that is why we are lending our voices to Curtail this Excesses.”
The group enjoined the Minister to respect the procedural directives of the Government and allow the MD NSITF perform his duties without any needless Distractions.
It further called on the federal Government through the office of the secretary of the government of the federation ( SGF) to restrain Sen. Ngige from bullying the MD/CEO of NSITF and any other Head Suffering from his entrapment .
The group enjoined officers of the NSITF to ignore what it termed ” the obnoxious order” of the Minister and cooperate with Mr. Adebayo Somefun as their Substantive MD/CEO till the expiration of his tenure.
