About 22 employees of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) have dragged the agency to Court to stop the looming plan to sack them.
At the behest of the Director General; Dr Dakuku Peterside, the management of NIMASA, had a few months ago commenced what it called right-sizing and down-sizing of its employees, a move that precipitated crisis in the agency.
Shipping Position Daily confirmed that most of those affected were employed during the tenure of the immediate past DG; Mr Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi. He was removed as DG in 2015, and replaced with the incumbent; Dakuku Peterside.
Majority of those being targeted are in the cadre of Director, Deputy Director and Assistant Director. They are alleged to have been brought into NIMASA and given their current dispositions without due process.
Sources told our correspondent last week, that the right-sizing and down-sizing were aimed at downgrading some senior personnel, who were perceived to have joined the agency in the last six to seven years and whose present positions are believed to be unmerited.
A senior personnel of the agency who pleaded not to be identified, explained that the right-sizing issue has been on for a while and that, “it is an attempt to weed out those who are still considered as Akpobolokemi boys”.
“You see, some people who were considered as professionals were employed under the former DG, they came from different national and multinational organisations, and they were placed in positions that were thought to be commensurate with the cognate experiences”, he told our correspondent.
He however acknowledged that some may have been placed on grade levels that were not commensurate with their qualifications and years of experience. He gave an example of one of them who was allegedly dismissed from service.
According to another source, a similar thing happened during the tenure of the former DG, when some senior officers within the ranks of director and deputy director were asked to be paid-off.
The source recalled that: “Some of the affected officers were intimidated to resign and paid severance benefits. Some of those being hounded now were beneficiaries of the Akpobolokemi act.
Even though details of those who went to court could not be ascertained as at last week, our correspondent confirmed that the Court injunction has already been served on the management of NIMASA.
The source also confirmed that the issue was discussed at a recent NIMASA management meeting and that it was agreed that the exercise should be out on hold. “You know I am not a member of management, but the minutes that I read indicated that it has been put on hold, because they (those to be affected) went to court to stop it”, the source confirmed.
Our correspondent also confirmed that, prior to the court injunction; the National Assembly had given a directive in which the Senate ordered that the action be suspended, pending investigations.
It was confirmed that some of those who are likely to be affected by the exercise had used their influences in the National Assembly to truncate the plans.
But, apparently because the NIMASA management was going ahead with the action, in violation of the directive of the Senate, the aggrieved staff went to court.
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