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Workers at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research have petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari against the Director General of the institute, Professor Innocent Ujah, over alleged corruption and mismanagement of the NIMR.
The workers, in a petition written by the ‘Concerned NIMR Staff’ and titled ‘Financial Misconduct and Abuse of Office by Prof. Innocent Achanya Otobo Ujah (The Director General, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research),’ accused him of employment racketeering and illegal payment of salaries and other emoluments.
When contacted on Friday for his reaction to the allegations, Ujah asked the petitioners to come forward for identification. He refused to comment on the allegations until he sees a copy of the petition.
Other allegations in the petition included unaccounted Internally Generated Revenue, inflated contracts and projects, ghost projects, financial recklessness, bribery and corruption, abuse of office and highhandedness.
The petition read, “The staff of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research has continued to witness several injustices, inequality and total disregard to staff matters, as well as accumulative maladministrative (sic) actions of the Director General, Prof. Innocent A. Ujah.
“The actions of Professor Ujah are not only against the country’s ethical code of conduct and the civil service rules; they are also against the economic and financial principle of the country.
“The allegations brought against Professor Ujah are verifiable and investigation into this matter will bring further light to the matter.”
Ujah was also accused of deliberate frustration of research staff which had led to mass exodus of workers.
“So far, 15 research fellows, three medical laboratory scientists and two admin staff have left. One of the admin staff worked in his office. This makes a total of 20 staff that have resigned (their appointments),” the petition, a copy of which was sent to SUNDAY PUNCH, read.
The petitioners alleged that close to 150 new members of staff had been recruited since the DG came into office 2010, with about 80 per cent of the recruits from Benue State – his home-state. The new recruits, they alleged, included his kinsmen.
On the DG’s alleged impunity, the aggrieved workers said the decision on appointments and contracts had been made with disregard to extant rules “without the knowledge of (the) Senior Management Committee, the highest decision making body (of the institute).”
The petition partly read, “Since the last SMC meeting early July 2015, no meeting has held till date. He operates as a sole administrator and issues circulars to further frustrate the staff.
“Vindictive queries have been issued recently (in the last four months) to two directors and three deputy directors all in a bid to further buttress his regime of impunity and victimisation.
“Promotion exercises are done without the knowledge of SMC members, and the few members that he invites to attend are informed only on the day of the promotion exercise.”
The petitioners further alleged that the position of Deputy Director (Admin) was not advertised but someone close to Ujah was appointed to occupy the office.
“The Chief Internal Auditor recently employed had his employment backdated to 2013. In fact, there was a period last year (when) HoDs were asked to backdate the personnel forms of staff to 20th November, 2014, when in actual fact the personnel forms were sent in May 2015,” they added.
The aggrieved workers also alleged that members of the SMC were not involved in the preparation of the 2016 budget for the NIMR, as only three officials were present at a meeting where a non-NIMR worker – a former two-term DG and now a contract staff – chaired the meeting.
However, in what indicated that the NIMR boss was aware of the petition, Ujah asked, “Is it not the same petition they’ve distributed since September last year? Who are the petitioners; do they have names?”
He further said, “I have the nominal roll here, there is nobody bearing ‘Concerned NIMR Staff’ on it. If you go ahead to publish the petition, I will sue your newspaper. You think I will respond to anything on the telephone? I will not respond to anything until I see the petition. Bring the petition to me. If I go through it, I will respond to whatever they have written inside it.”
When our correspondent sent some details of petition to Ujah to have an understanding of the allegations, he neither replied nor picked subsequent calls made to his phone.
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Source: Punch News