The Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Prof. Idris Bugaje, has been accused of illegally suspending a director of the board in an alleged case of witch-hunt.
In a petition to the Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, sighted by Daily Trust, the immediate past Director of Human Resources, Malam Lawal Hafiz, claimed that he was suspended following the allegation of being the arrowhead of whistleblowers that petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) over alleged illegal withdrawal of N200 million from the board’s Single Treasury Account (TSA) to a commercial bank, as well as deployment of the board’s fully paid staff as manager of the executive secretary’s wife restaurant, and payment of salary to already employed federal government employees.
But the executive secretary, denied the allegations, saying the director was only suspended for giving unsatisfactory reply to the query issued to him by the management.
Hafiz told the minister of education in the petition that the executive secretary had feigned ignorance of the ICPC probe, and instead, descended on the perceived whistleblowers by redeploying them and making them redundant.
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Hafiz also appealed to the minister to call Professor Bugaje to order and restore the management committee comprising of all directors of the board and disband the NBTE EXCO where only a few directors are members, an act not recognised by the NBTE laws.
He said though the query given to him on using public transport to conduct official engagements was answered in line with public service rules, he was nonetheless suspended.
I’ve powers to suspend any director – Prof. Bugaje
When contacted over the alleged vendetta, Professor Bugaje said as the chief executive of NBTE, he had all powers to suspend any director found wanting.
“We gave him a query about four weeks ago concerning travels he made this year to Abuja. He was claiming both his DTA, the driver, and the fuel. But most of the trips, he will go and join the train or he will go in public transport and the drivers were not paid their approved DTA and also short-changing NBTE in terms of fuel.
“So, we asked him to explain why and he gave us a very unsatisfactory reply. He was asked also to give the details of those he remitted, he couldn’t bring any evidence. So, for that reason, we had to set up a committee to investigate. And also we had to suspend him for a maximum of six months, as provided in the public service rule.”
On whether he (Prof. Bugaje) was invited by the ICPC over alleged infractions, he said, “He (Hafiz) has made many allegations concerning ICPC, which is a partner in the activities of the NBTE.
“I am not aware of him being a whistleblower. Somebody who is short-changing the NBTE, he shouldn’t go and start claiming of being a whistle-blower on anything. If he has blown the whistle, let him know there are agencies of government that listen to whistleblowing. Let him go and blow it. But I’m not aware. The reason why he was suspended is basically the query he was given.”
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