A Coalition of Civil Society Groups has faulted the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige over the suspension of Managing Director, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Mr Bayo Somefun and other senior staff of the agency.
Convener of the group, Mr Danesi Momoh at a press conference in Abuja over the weekend, said the suspension of NSITF boss ran contrary to the procedures for discipline of CEOs of government parastatals, agencies and departments provided for in the Public Service Rules (PSR).
The rights group argued that the minister acted unilaterally without reference to the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari, Governing Board of NSITFand the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation in line with the relevant provisions of the Establishment Act and the principles guiding Chapter 3 and 16 of the Public Service Rules.
Decrying the development, the group said: “To our amazement, none of these procedures was followed by the Hon. Minister. This clearly shows that the minister is acting with prejudice and premonitions. Instructively, he also threatened the MD with the following words: “There are many ways to kill a rat; you either give it gamalin to eat, set a trap for it or you knock it on the head to die.”
“This is totally out of order and unacceptable. Moreso the Hon Minister Sen. Ngige has now brought another Head of Procurement to serve his own purpose, which if not stopped will bring chaos to the organisation.”
The group enjoined the minister to respect the directives of government and allow the NSITF MD to perform his duties without the 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.
