Confusion is currently brewing in the federal ministry of labour and employment after the management of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) says its team remains operational, pointedly contravening a letter purportedly suspending the officials by the supervising minister, Chris Ngige.
A letter from Ngige dated July 1, 2020 and addressed to Adebayo Somefun, managing director of NSITF, said President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the suspension of the NSIFT management over acts of misappropriation and other gross misconduct.
The MD was instructed to hand over to the most senior official in the board and face a panel that would investigate procurement dealings of the agency from 2017 to 2020.
However, the NSITF managment quickly put out a statement saying that the president gave no such directive as claimed by the minister.
“We wish to state that President Muhammadu Buhari has not suspended the management of NSITF and has not made any such announcement, anywhere,” the statement read.
“For clarity, we received a letter from the Hon Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen Chris Ngige, stating that he is carrying out a procurement audit of NSITF, and that Management is suspended.
“We had noted that the Minister’s action is against President Buhari’s directive, through the Secretary to the Government of the Federations that no minister should suspend, or purport to sack any head of agency appointed by the president.
“The memo stressed that ministers should follow laid down procedures, by going through the governing board of the agencies, to make recommendations to the SGF, ahead of any action, if necessary.
“We respect the president’s commitment to due process, and are assured we shall be protected by it. Meanwhile, the NSITF management remains open to any form of investigation by the appropriate agencies, as it has nothing to hide.”
The statement added that the management of NSITF will continue discharging its duties in line with its statutory responsibilities and called for calm from all parties.
There have been frequent public disagreement between supervising ministers and heads of parastatals in recent times compelling Boss Mustapha, the secretary to the government of the federation to announce in May that ministers lack the powers to remove heads of agencies.
