The
employment and sack of over 245 staff of the National Information
Technology Agency (NITDA) is generating controversy between the
affected staff and Minister of Communications Barrister Adebayo
Shittu. The 245 staff “duly” employed by controversial former DG
of the Agency, Peter Jack, in November 2015 were summarily asked to
stay off work on the orders of the minister after the agency had
asked them to open salary accounts and choose their pension
administrators.
However,
Barrister Shittu said yesterday that the staff were employed through
the back door by a former NITDA Director-General, according to a
Daily
Trust
report.
Spokesman
for the aggrieved staff, Kabiru
Abubakar,
said NITDA employed them legally because the agency got approval from
the ministry’s former Permanent Secretary, Dr. Tunji
Olaopa
and
the Federal
Character Commission
(FCC)
before recruiting them.
“How
can the minister say we were employed illegally when the ministry and
the Federal Character Commission duly approved our employment? Why is
the minister playing politics with our lives; the fact that they have
problem with Peter Jack should not make us bear the brunt?”
said
Mustapha, who was employed as a Higher Executive officer 1 on
CONITSAS 8 step 2.
The
spokesman said they had met with Dr. Vincent
Olatunji,
acting DG of NITDA, twice but he told them only the minister could
rectify their employment. He stated that the 245 staff would stage a
peaceful protest at the Federal Secretariat Abuja today to iron out
their issues with the government.
“Why
would the government that promised employment for youths go ahead to
cancel same employment created by its own agency? The former NITDA
Director- General got approval from the Ministry of Communications to
recruit and the Federal Character Commission approved the employment
of 245 of us who scaled through the interview hurdle,”
Mustapha said.
Shittu
however, stated that the ministry might reconsider their case after
the substantive DG had been appointed at NITDA.
Apart
from employment racketeering, the former DG was also accused of
inflating contracts and other shady deals while in office.
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