For asking ranking directors and deputy directors in the agency to resign under questionable circumstances, both the National Assembly and the Federal Character Commission have asked the director general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to report at Abuja this week to answer some questions.
Trouble started at NIMASA when the director general reportedly asked the first set of three directors to proceed on retirement, even though they are not due for retirement yet.
For asking ranking directors and deputy directors in the agency to resign under questionable circumstances, both the National Assembly and the Federal Character Commission have asked the director general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to report at Abuja this week to answer some questions.
Trouble started at NIMASA when the director general reportedly asked the first set of three directors to proceed on retirement, even though they are not due for retirement yet.
They were offered what insider sources referred to as a ‘suspicious golden handshake’ by the executive management.
Sources in NIMASA told our correspondent last week that the first set of ‘victims’ of the emerging top-level purge were offered between N150Million and N200Million to resign before their time was due.
The trio (names withheld), which included two directors and one deputy director have since left the service of the agency, albeit grudgingly.
Shipping Position Daily confirmed that a second batch of eight deputy directors have also been invited and asked to resign and get the ‘golden handshake’.
However, the seeming cleansing that is going on at the prime agency has received the attention of the Senate whose committee on marine transport has summoned the director general, Mr Ziakede Akpobolokemi to appear before it this week.
The Senate letter specifically ordered the DG to come along with documents about postings, promotions, appointments and retirements since December 2011.
A member of the committee who confirmed the letter to our correspondent also expressed shock that some deputy directors were still asked to resign after receiving the invitation to Abuja.
“I don’t think he (DG) actually gave anyone any letter because the invitation was sent and received on Tuesday ( April 15), if he did, he must have backdated the letter to the directors”, he said.
A similar invitation has been sent to him by the Federal Character Commission for a meeting this week as well.
But a source at NIMASA however confirmed to our correspondent that the directors were invited to a meeting with an executive director who told them of the decision to lay them off and also offered them amount ranging from N150Millio to N175Million to exit from the agency.
Shipping Position Daily also noticed last week that the putsch is already causing ripples both within the agency and in the maritime industry at large, where stakeholders who got wind of it have vowed to fight it.
Majority of those who spoke to our correspondent expressed surprise that senior officers who have been trained over the years would be asked to go before they are due for retirement to pave way for those who will be trained again. They specifically insisted that what should have been done would have been to elevate qualified deputy directors to directors.
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