The handing over ceremony of recently resigned minister for information, Labaran Maku was marred with protest.
The agitators charge Mr Maku of embezzling funds amidst other allegations.
Here are the details.
'Workers under the aegis of the
Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, Federal Ministry of
Information chapter have on Monday disrupted the handing over ceremony
of erstwhile Minister of Information Labaran Maku.
The visibly angry Ministry Staffs disrupted the ceremony in protested of non-payment of their allowances.
The protesters also accused the minister and other top officials of mismanaging SURE-P funds meant for the ministry.
They went ahead to block the gates to
the Radio House for hours and prevented people from entering or coming
out of the building.
'They kept on chanting solidarity songs
and carried placards with inscriptions such as: “Is SURE-P money
released for the pockets of a set of people?”, “Is there no budget
released for the Ministry for Information for 2014?”
Other placards read, “Enough is Enough:
Management sensitivity to staff welfare is zero,” “Perm Sec. Must Go,”
“Non Payment of Repatriation allowance.”
Speaking to journalists, the Chairman of
the association, Adam Ogwola, said the ministry’s management has been
insensitive to staff welfare.
Mr. Ogwola pointed out that staff of the
ministry has not been paid their repatriation allowance, noting that
with Mr. Maku’s resignation, it may not be possible to recover the
funds.
The association also accused Mr. Maku of
sharing a part of the SURE-P funds with top management of the ministry
without recourse to staff.
Continuing, Mr. Ogwola said staff
welfare had been at the lowest ebb since Mr. Maku became minister,
adding that under him, the ministry could not pay statutory allowances
to staff.
He questioned the budget released for
the ministry under the 2014 budget and called for the immediate removal
of the Permanent Secretary.'
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