Confusion at PEF as sacked Executive Secretary unilaterally names successor

Confusion has engulfed the Petroleum Equalization (Management) Fund following the decision of the immediate past Executive Secretary of the agency, Hajia Asmau Asabe Ahmed, not to hand over to the most senior manager.
Investigations at the PEF office on Tuesday in Abuja revealed that Hajia Ahmed convened a management meeting at 1pm, where she announced that a newly-promoted General Manager, Alhaji Ahmed Bobboi, has been appointed as the Acting General Manager and that the appointment has been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
This is contrary to the contents of the letter from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, which instructed all the Chief Executive Officers, who were relieved of their positions on February 15, 2016, to handover to the most senior officer in their respective organizations.
It was gathered that Bobboi, who has not worked at PEF headquarters in the past nine years and only resumed on the day Hajia Ahmeed was sacked, is the third in the line of seniority and that his two seniors were present at the meeting where the former Executive Secretary, who did not hand over to him, simply said he has been appointed the Acting Executive Secretary.
It was also gathered that Ahmed worked full time on February 15, 2016 after it was announced that she has been relieved of her job and that she was in office on Tuesday, where she still approved some disbursements.
On why Bobboi turned out to be the preferred choice, some staff of PEF who spoke on grounds of anonymity said it was a deliberate means that the former executive secretary used to cover her tracks.
A staff who spoke on grounds of anonymity said: “I know that between January 2016 and now, she has collected allowances amounting to N60 million.
“A lot of illegal consultancies have been approved for her friends and cronies as well as illegal recruitments.
“The newly recruited staffs are currently undergoing orientation at one of the hotels in Abuja.
“We also know of a company belonging to her friend, which was registered in 2010 with share capital of N2 million, which has handled jobs amounting to N200 million within six months, just as the same company was paid N300,000 in reimbursable for taxi services in Abuja
“She recently acquired some exotic cars, moves around in a convoy of four vehicles and in company of six mobile Policemen.
“All the bills are paid by PEF.”
It was gathered that Ahmed, who was appointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan on May 7, 2016, has also submitted the names of the two most senior directors to the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, for retirement, an action that has further deepened the confusion pervading the office of the PEF.
Another source at the agency said: “This is not time to learn on the job going by the body language of the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration.
“Hajia Ahmed set us back because until she left, she was still grappling with functions and operations of PEF as she hardly had a prior knowledge of where former President Goodluck Jonathan deployed her to work.
“You can imagine that even after realizing that she would be sacked, Hajia Ahmed, who was deployed to PEF from the Ministry of Agriculture, where she served as Minister of State, still made recruitments even when there was no budgetary provisions for their salaries.
“We were all shocked yesterday when the sacked Executive Secretary convened a meeting, stood all through the meeting and simply announced the appointment of an acting Executive Secretary before moving to the Minister’s office to handover names of people she wants to be retired.
“The two names she submitted and we have confirmed that she did, are not due for retirement.”