Striking NIPC staff seek recall of 3 colleagues

Striking workers of the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) have demanded for the recall of three workers sacked by the Executive Secretary, Ms Yewande Sadiku.

The workers blocked the entrance to the commission’s headquarters in Abuja on Monday in continuation of their indefinite industrial action which started last week.

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Addressing the protesters, a former Secretary of the NIPC chapter of the Association of Senior Civil Servants Association of Nigeria (ASCSN), Shettima Gana Mohammed, said the sacked workers were “wrongfully” dismissed by the NIPC boss.

“We have about three members of staff that have been dismissed – wrongful dismissal. When you want to sack somebody in the civil service, there are Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). They knew they had not followed these SOPs. They just sat down, concocted stories and sacked these gentlemen.”

He said the workers would continue the industrial action until President Muhammadu Buhari sacked the executive secretary.

The workers also demanded that all promotional issues, including that of 2018, should be resolved in their favour and that all outstanding arrears and severance packages should be paid to retired staff of the commission with all zonal offices of the commission renovated.

Mohammed said the NIPC boss interfered and manipulated staff promotion exercise results, favouring “her own people.”

However, Ms Sadiku has debunked the allegation of interference with staff promotion, adding that it was “transparently conducted.”

The NIPC management said in a statement that most of the workers’ demands had been resolved previously and that the commission had been engaging the union and other stakeholders to resolve the rest.