Chief of Staff to the president, Abba Kyari and offices of Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Attorney-General of the Federation, are yet to reinstate a female auditor with the Niger Delta Power Holding Limited (NDPHC), Mrs Maryam Danna, one year after President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive.
DAILY POST, in January this year, reported that the president ordered investigation of Mohammed’s removal after his attention was drawn to the matter.
A top government source told this newspaper that Buhari directed one of the Supervisory Ministers for NDPHC to investigate “the case of unlawful disengagement” of Mrs Danna and forward outcome directly to him.
Mrs Danna, a widow from Borno State, was disengaged in controversial circumstances over her anti-corruption stance.
On October 25, 2016, AGF Abubakar Malami, SAN, based on the directive of the president sent a letter to Kyari (also from Borno State) directing that Mrs. Danna be reinstated.
“In this connection, I wish to convey to you, Mr. President’s approval vide a meeting with the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice on the 12th October 2016, for the reinstatement of the Staff (petitioner), Mrs Maryam Danna Mohammed,” the AGF said in the letter.
But sacked SGF, Babachir Lawal, himself enmeshed in corruption allegations at the time, did not effect the president’s directive until his unceremonious exit from government last week.
Without any query, Lawal had issued a letter conveying notification of Danna’s disengagement as GM NDPHC with effect from 10th June 2016.
He then announced dissolution of the Executive Management of NDPHC and directed Managing Director of the company to handover to Chiedu Ugbo, a Special Adviser to Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.
Lawal also directed all the Executive Directors to handover immediately to the most senior officers in their respective departments.
However, all 12 General Managers of the same status with Mrs Danna were allowed to remain in their positions after she was retired.
Danna, was among others, accused of ‘blowing whistle’ on a top officer of the organisation who did not possess basic and mandatory requirements to appointments into office.
Trouble started when one of her Audit Reports in 2014 exposed anomalies in the credentials of the then Executive Director, Technical Services at NDPHC Mr Louis Edozien, who allegedly failed to present neither a discharge nor an exemption certificate from National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) before his appointment.
Edozien was removed from the service but returned as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, a supervisory organ to NDPHC in November 2015.
Besides his stint at NDPHC, Edozien never worked in the civil service but was made permanent secretary despite security report by the DSS.
Meanwhile, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has condemned “the high-handed action taken by the government that resulted in a groundless decision to relieve Mrs Danna from office in response to her whistleblowing effort to expose corrupt practice perpetrated in the company.”
Executive Director CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Rafsanjan,i stated that the NGO “find it worrisome that the administration’s inconsistency in the protection of whistle-blowers will not only thwart and backpedal the existing achievements but will also erode citizens’ confidence in the administration with potential for their subsequent and total detachment from complementing whistleblowing activities.
“We are worried that rather than giving deserved commendation and reward to Mrs Maryam Danna, the staff concerned, the management resulted in undemocratic move to frustrate and disengage her from the job, as against the promise and policy commitment of the present administration to protect and reward whistle-blowers in all ramifications.
“We demand total demonstration of readiness for the protection and reward for whistle-blowers from victimisation in the country including the staff concerned who is as well a widow that further endorses the extent of her vulnerability in the society.
“We demand immediate restatement and appropriate reward for the staff concerned by the respective authorities without intimidation or victimisation.” the statement concluded.
Similarly, a labour activist and Abuja based legal practitioner, Mr Yunus Abdulsalam described the abrupt termination of Danna’s appointment as an act of lawlessness.
His words: “In her travails, we find acute lawlessness and impunity in their most banal forms. An employment with statutory flavours like that of Mrs Danna cannot be terminated in any manner that is inconsistent with the provisions of the law.
“It is not a master-servant relationship which the master has the prerogative to terminate the employment with or without reason. The provision of the public service rules which enshrined the disciplinary procedures to be followed before terminating an employment of civil servant was flagrantly violated in the case of Mrs Danna.”
Abdusalam pointed out that the Supreme court, in several judgements, ruled that it would be wrong for an employer to terminate the appointment of an employee whose employment has statutory flavour in any manner that violates the provision of the employment contained in the statute.
Danna is a member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (FCIT).
She started her career in National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) in 1992 as an Officer II Audit and rose through the ranks to the position of Assistant General Manger (Audit) in 2010 while in Power Holdings Company of Nigeria (PHCN), before moving to the NDPHC where she was promoted to General Manager (Audit and Compliance) on July 1, 2011.
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