Leadership (Abuja)
Uchenna Awom
8 November 2009
Abuja — The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions has stepped into the sack of a staff of Nigerian Institute of Trypanosomiasis Research (NITR), Kaduna; Mr. Benjamin Idowu, who was used as prosecution witnesses in the criminal trial of some senior officials of the Institute by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).
The investigation was sequel to a mandate handed down to the committee following a petitioned presented on behalf of them by Mr. Idowu The petition authored by Mr. Benjamin Idowu alleges that himself, Mrs. C.O. Shado a chief internal auditor with the agency and Mrs. S.C.M. Agbaje were sacked because they served as prosecution witnesses for the ICPC in its prosecution of the former chief executive of the agency, Prof. L.T. Zaria and the serving director of Finance of the institute, Mallam A. Dangaladima. The petition, which was attached with documents including a letter from the chairman of the ICPC protesting the disengagement of the affected staff accused Prof. Zaria and the Director of Administration Mallam Dan-Galadima of victimising them on account of their willingness to serve as prosecution witnesses for the ICPC.
In the petition he alleged highhandedness and victimization occasioned by the reported acts of discretion on the part of Prof. Zaria and Dangaladima. The petition read in part: "The appointment of these duo and their mismanagement of the affairs of the institute brought untold hardship with embezzlement of workers' salaries and entitlements prompting a letter dated February 23, 2007 with Ref. SSA/RIS/Vom. VI/07/X (Annex 1) written to the then Honourable Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. T.T. Isoun. The accumulated problems in the institute led to the indefinite suspension of Prof. L.T. Zaria on the 16th March 2007. "As the Secretary of the Senior Staff Association, SSA, I was invited with others namely, Mrs. C.O. Shado, Mrs. S.C.M. Agaje by the ICPC as witnesses in the various allegations of corruption against Prof. L.T. Zaria and Mallam Abubakar Dangaladima which we did with all honesty and sincerity.
"To my surprise and dismay on May 14, 2007 my name and that of others were displayed on the notice board of the Institute as staff purportedly downsized. "However, my own case had a peculiar and unique dimension because in the original list submitted to Bureau for Public Service Reforms (BPSR), my name was not originally on the list but was posted on the notice board in N.I.T.R as one of those purportedly downsised. "The then Chairman of the Governing Board, Mallam Abbas Ciroma continued to press for the BPSR to exchange my name with that of Dr. F. A.G. Lawani who was my Head of Department and Director of Trypanosomiasis (See Annex 4). But it was reliably gathered that the BPSR rejected such exchange of names and it was not surprising that when the list of staff to be paid retirement benefits by office of the Accountant General were sent to their respective parastatals, my own name was not on the list. From January 2008 to this moment, I have been denied monthly salary and stopped from going to my place of work by Mallam Abubakar Dangaladima."
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Leadership. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
