Following a recent audit of some government-owned petroleum institutions in the country, Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke has sacked 10 senior officials of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF).
Their sack was announced on Friday in a memo with number PTDF/A&HR/SD/353/V.1/14 and dated October 18, 2013, to the parastatal.
The sack of the staff, Huhuonline.com learnt, is as a result of government’s decision to begin the implementation of the ministerial personnel audit conducted by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in five of its parastatals in April. The sacked officials were said to be found wanting of corruption and falsification of their documents.
The memo explained that sequel to the verification exercise “carried out by the officials of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources recently, the Honourable Minister has directed the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) to disengage the following staff.
“Consequently, the affected staff who are available have been issued with their disengagement letters, while letters for those who are out of the office have been sent through members of staff close to them for onward delivery.”
Titled: ‘Disengagement of Staff’, the memo signed by B. Z. Ahmad said those affected are Jolomi Arenyeka, the General Manager (Nigerian Content Department); Habiba Wakil, General Manager (Legal & Secretariat Services); Joseph Dogo, General Manager (Special Duties); Nasir Ahmed (Manager (Upstream); and Usman Pindar (Deputy Manager, Mid and Downstream), Gregory Aziobaologha, who was Officer 11 (Technical Services); Abdulmanaf Ibrahim, Supervisor (Education); Salisu Babaji, Assistant Supervisor (Human Resources); Mangse Yikalhan Assistant Supervisor (Finance & Administration), and Faith Idaikwo, Senior Assistant Supervisor (Administration).
The memo directed the sacked staff to handover all PTDF’s property in their possession to the most senior officers in their various departments.
It was further learnt that the sack has caused confusion among their colleagues, as some others who were indicted during the exercise are yet to know their fates.
Some of those indicted in the audit, meant to prepare the Ministry of Petroleum for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, were said to have presented forged age declaration or had some defects in their job data.
Led by the permanent secretary in the ministry, Goddy Onwughalu, the audit panel reportedly some officials of the PTDF, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Authority (PPPRA), Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) and Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) culpable of various offences.
