The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) reports that its administration remains operational despite the suspension by Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Mr. Adebayo Somefun (pictured above), was suspended along with the NSITF’s Managing Director of Finance and Investment, Mr. Jasper Ikedi Azuatalam, the Managing Director of Operations, Ms. Olukemi Nelson, and the Managing Director of Administration, Alhaji Tijani Darazo Sulaiman.
Deputy Director of Public Relations, Charles Akpan, made the announcement in Abuja on Thursday 2 July (read here).
In a letter to Adebayo Somefun dated July 1, 2020, Ngige stated that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the suspension of Somefun’s heads of administration for “embezzlement and other gross misconduct”.
Somefun was instructed to hand over leadership to the highest ranking official on the Board and to submit to a panel to investigate the Agency’s procurement operations from 2017 to 2020.
In a statement on Thursday, the NSITF said in a reaction that the president had not given such an order.
The statement reads: “We wish to state that President Muhammadu Buhari has not suspended the leadership of NSITF and has not made any such announcement anywhere.
“For the sake of clarity, we have received a letter from the Honorary Minister of Labor and Employment, Sen Chris Ngige, stating that he is conducting a procurement audit of the NSITF and that management has been suspended.
“We had determined that the Minister’s actions were in violation of the instructions of President Buhari, who has the Secretary of the Federation Government, that no Minister should suspend or allegedly dismiss a President-appointed head of an agency.
“The memo stressed that ministers should follow established procedures by making recommendations to the SGF through the agencies’ board of directors, if necessary before any action is taken.
“We respect the President’s commitment to due process and are confident that we will be protected by it. In the meantime, the NSITF management remains open to any form of investigation by the competent authorities, as it has nothing to hide”.
NSITF said it has received many letters and petitions from the minister and will make the communications available to the public and the relevant authorities if necessary.
She added that “the NSITF management, as appointed by the President, is still fulfilling its duties and we ask all parties to remain calm and concentrate as everything is fine”.