Rita Agaba, the President of the workers union in National Population Commission, has dismissed insinuations that their protest against the reappointment of the Director-General of the commission, Dr Ghaji Bello, was political.
Agaba expressed the workers view in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday in Abuja.
According to her, the staff still maintained their position on the reversal of the reappointment of Bello and had vowed to shut NPC offices nationwide until government addressed their demand.
She also called on the Federal Government to investigate the activities of the reappointed director-general for the four years of his tenure in the commission.
She said: “The union is not bias and have nothing to do with politics as the reappointed DG was also appointed by PDP.
“As am talking to you, all the repatriation allowance has not been paid and funds are being diverted to his own pocket.
“He prefers to run generator on montly basis at the cost of N2.3 million instead of paying N500,000 PHCN monthly bill.
“The DG is also the contractor that supplies diesel to the commission.”
Similarly, the Vice Chairman, Joint Association of Civil Servants Union of the commission, Ibrahim Saleh, flayed the manner the director-general handled the affairs of the commission.
He noted that the director-general has usurped the functions of the Procurement and Accounts departments of NPC.
Saleh said: “The DG took over these departments in order to award contracts to himself without due process.
“He subjects the directors to ridicule and as well owed the cleaners and ex-corps members allowances.”
He added that the staff members of NPC nationwide had joined in the protest and the exercise continues until the reappointment of the director-general was reversed and other sundry demands met.
Reacting to the development, Bello told newsmen that the protest was politically motivated.
He also said the commission was grossly underfunded to run its primary mandate and there was no money to steal as alleged by the workers.
NAN recalls that the workers embarked on a peaceful protest in the last five days while the headquarters of the commission remained locked.
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