Says Igbo born public office holders are scared of unceremonious removals
Prominent civil rights advocacy group HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has alleged that politicians of the All progressive Congress (APC) in Lagos state, have invaded Abuja and are now all over federal government agencies in search of juicy offices occupied by mostly Igbos, so as to torpedo them by pushing for their replacements with their favoured Yoruba candidates.
“We sincerely urge the President to be a true statesman and halt this ongoing coordinated attacks and psychological torture of Igbo born public office holders by forces claiming to be connected to the President and share same Yoruba Ethnicity and Lagos network with the President. We urge His Excellency, President Tinubu, to investigate this allegation discreetly to ascertain the reality on the ground and for him to personally assure all Igbo born public office holders under the Federal Government of freedom from undue harassment and political witch hunt. We were actually informed by many of such persons on the strictest conditions of confidentiality about their ordeals and as a law abiding and patriotic human rights campaigners, we decided to go public to inform the President.
In the media alert contained in a press Statement endorsed by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA disclosed that it has been alerted recently by well over half a dozen top government officials of igbo and South/South extractions who alleged that currently, some unidentified politically connected persons of south West extraction linked to the APC, are seeking to unseat them because they believed that the current administration is unabashedly nepotistic and favours persons of south West origin”
“Those who told us about their apprehension and deep-seated fears said that what happened to the executive secretary of the pension transitional arrangement (PTAD) the Igbo born Dr. Chioma Ejikeme may not afterall be an isolated case just as they expressed anxiety that their tenures in their current offices are not safeguarded because they are Igbos.
“One of them told HURIWA that the Igbo woman in PTAD, Dr. Cioma Ejikeme was on an assignment outside the shores of Nigeria when her illegal removal was perfected and thereafter announced in the media even when she has only spent 13 months out of her 4-year tenure that was just renewed by President Bola Tinubu even as there was no tenable justification for her removal.
HURIWA recalled that on Monday 18th of November, 2024, the Executive Secretary of Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, (PTAD), Dr. Chioma Ejikeme was unceremoniously unseated 13 months after reappointment for four year tenure.
HURIWA noted that President Bola Tinubu who had only 13 months ago, reappointed her for a second term of four years tenure, authorised the public notice announcing that she (Dr. Chioma Ejikeme) has been sacked as the Executive Secretary of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), , and replaced with another woman of the south West, Yoruba ethnic origin: same as that of President Tinubu.
A statement issued by PTAD spokesman, Olugbenga Ajayi, indicated that the President appointed Miss Tolulope Abiodun Odunaiya as new head of the pension agency.
“We are delighted to inform our public, especially PTAD pensioners and other stakeholders of the appointment of Miss Tolulope Abiodun Odunaiya by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the substantive Executive Secretary of Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD),” Ajayi said without offering why Ejikeme was removed from office 13 months after her reappointment by the Nigerian leader.
HURIWA recalled that Dr. Chioma Ejikeme’s reappointment took effect on Tuesday, October 10, 2023. Odunaiya immediately assumed office in Abuja, where the management and staff of the directorate welcomed her.
HURIWA has appealed to the Igbo speaking people of Nigeria, to put their acts together, unite under a common umbrella, and to ensure that their credible political stakeholders stand firmly in defense of the corporate interest of Ndigbo under the canopy of the Nigerian nation just as the Rights group appealed to Senators, House of Representatives members, governors of Igbo extraction, to appeal to the President to stop the undue harassment of his few appointees of Igbo extraction who are allegedly been harassed and harangued by certain politicians of Yoruba extraction known as ‘Lagos boys’ who are understandably on rampage around offices in Abuja nosing around for key Director General’s level positions in supposedly ‘juicy’ agencies headed by Igbos so they are dismissed to create rooms for Yoruba appointees.
HURIWA disclosed that an Igbo appointee told us that “we Igbo appointees under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, are advised in our own interest, to maintain low profile and avoid media noise if we want to guard our positions jealously or else the ‘Lagos boys’ will simply unseat us”.
HURIWA stated that under the current toxic atmosphere, productivity, creativity and professionalism will suffer because those who don’t have political godfathers connected to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu are overcome with groundswell of anxieties, fears, and uncertainty only because they are Igbos or from the South-South of Nigeria.
*Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko,
National Coordinator,
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). November 19th 2024.
