Two months after chairman Maurice Iwu promised to purge the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of "bad eggs", a mass transfer of senior officials began yesterday.
Moved from the Abuja headquarters are directors, deputy directors and other "disloyal" members of the staff.
It was learnt that the list of about 50 in the first batch was approved at a management meeting yesterday. It includes Mr. John Onaji, who exposed the N250million bribe scandal during the April governorship poll rerun in Ekiti State.
Prof. Iwu hinted of the shake-up on September 15 at a one-day conference by the Rights Monitoring Group in Abuja on how to consolidate democracy and credible electoral reform.
He said:" As the commission embarks on far-reaching internal reforms as well, it will take a detailed look at its personnel and the suitability of its workforce to better manage the electoral process.
"Civil society organisa-tions should equally be ready to play the crucial whistle-blowing role that will help rid the commission of compromised elements within our fold.
"At the moment, a personnel audit has been commissioned to review the entire workforce of the commission. The idea in all these efforts by the commission is to ensure that future elections and the mechanism for administering the electoral system are not only better but are seen as being so."
Initially on the list were 18 top officials, but the number was suddenly increased to about 50 before the management meeting began yesterday, The Nation learnt.
Although most of the affected officials were unaware of the move before they closed for the day, some of them were informed at home by some Human Resources Department officials.
Some of the affected officials are Director, Legal Services, Mr. Wole Uzzi; Deputy Director (Cash), Mr. Ezra Tidawa; Head of Civil Society Unit, Mr. Chuks Odepeh; Deputy Director, Compliance, Chidi Nwafor; and Assistant Director, Establishment, Nats Owhor and Onaji.
It was gathered that the full list might be made public today by the Director of Human Resources Department, Alhaji Dahiru Ibrahim.
A Human Resources Department official said: "We will release the list on Tuesday. Why don’t you wait till it is pasted?
"I can tell you that some of those on the list have just been elevated to deputy directors and they have to be transferred to states.
"There are other officials who cannot be entrusted with sensitive posts at the headquarters and they have been redeployed to some states."
A top official of INEC, who spoke in confidence with our correspondent, said: "I think there are about 50 staff on the list. Those being transferred are directors, deputy directors, assistant directors and other grades of staff.
"They are staff that the INEC chairman has had cause to disagree with on issues bordering on due process, transparency, legal advice on controversial issues and strange contracts.
"We saw it coming because the INEC chairman has always disregarded the advice of some of these directors. In fact, the Legal Unit is the worst-hit. At a point, INEC opted for external consultants to keep away certain official matters from the Unit.
"The INEC chairman is not too pleased working with the Director of Legal Service, Uzzi, because he was employed during the tenure of his predecessor, Dr. Abel Guobadia. He sees Uzzi as a loyalist of Guobadia, especially after he was publicly criticised by the former INEC chairman.
"But Uzzi and some of these officials have not only pledged their loyalty to Iwu, most staff are pleased with their diligence, forthrightness and sound administrative judgment.
"The feeling of Iwu and some of his commissioners is that he cannot work with the affected officials during the 2011 polls. These officials cannot be used or manipulated for dirty jobs.
"That is why they are being posted to states outside the headquarters where they have privileged access to documents."
The source, who pleaded not to be named, went on: "Iwu and some of his commissioners have also accused the affected officials of being behind the leakage of documents of contract transactions to the press.
"For instance, the management is finding it difficult to forgive Mr. John Onaji, who raised the alarm over the N250m bribery that occurred during the governorship poll rerun in Ekiti State in April.
"So, it is now a sin to tell the truth in this country. Since April, Onaji has undergone humiliation at INEC headquarters. He has been floating as no desk was given to him.
"I can assure you that more heads will roll in INEC. This initial exercise may be a prelude to a mass purge."
No comments:
Post a Comment