The
seeming absence of due process in the current administration has again
come to the fore as the Office of Vice President and Secretary to the
Government of the Federation have been fingered in wrongful
disengagement of Mrs Maryam Danna, a top shot at the Niger Delta Power
Holding Company (NDPHC), Economic Confidential has learnt.
Mrs
Danna who was disengaged in controversial circumstances, is a Chartered
Account from Borno State and had risen from the position of Auditor at
the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) in 1992 to General
Manager, Audit & Compliance at NDPHC in 2011.
The
NDPHC is incorporated under the Companies and Allied Matters Act as a
private limited liability company with terms and conditions of
employment and disengagement. It also has a Board which consists of the
Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as Chairman, six (6)
Governors of the six (6) Geo-Political Zones in the country and four (4)
Ministers namely that of Finance, Power, Petroleum and Justice.
Without
any query, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF),
Engr. Babachir David Lawal, who himself is enmeshed in alleged
corruption practices issued the letter conveying notification of her
disengagement as GM NDPHC with effect from 10th June, 2016 while a
Special Adviser to Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo was appointed as acting
Managing Director of the company.
Initially,
the SGF had announced the dissolution of the Executive Management of
NDPHC by the Federal Government and directed the Managing Director of
the company to handover to the Aide of Vice President. He also directed
all the Executive Directors to handover immediately to the most senior
officers in their respective departments. Curiously, there are twelve
(12) other General Managers of the same status with Mrs Maryam but were
allowed to remain in their positions, obviously because they are staff
of the company (like Maryam) and not members of the dissolved Executive
Management.
The
disengaged chartered Accountant who started her career in the then
National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) in 1992 as an Officer II Audit,
rose through the ranks to the position of Assistant General Manger
(Audit) in 2010 while in the service of Power Holdings Company of
Nigeria (PHCN) before moving to the Niger Delta Holding Company where
she was promoted to the rank of General Manager (Audit and Compliance)
on 1st July, 2011.
Meanwhile
it is suspected that Mrs Danna who is widely known as due process
advocate, might have been persecuted by some persons close to powerful
officials in government who might have felt aggrieved with some of her
tough decisions while she was the Auditor in the office. It is gathered
that the Special Adviser to the Vice-President who is appointed acting
Managing Director of the company was at one time a staff of one of the
contractors to NDPHC. There is also a case of an Executive Director in
NDPHC who never served in NYSC progamme but is currently serving as a
permanent secretary in a powerful federal ministry with supervisory
powers on NDPHC.
Economic Confidential gathered
that one of the Supervisory Ministers who investigated the case of
unlawful disengagement of Mrs Maryam has since written to President
Muhammadu Buhari through the Chief of Staff, Abbah Kyari for her
reinstatement.
Mrs Danna hailed from Borno, a
State that is not only grossly underrepresented but also where
Girl-Child Education is at its lowest ebb. She struggled against all
odds to reach her present status, by obtaining relevant additional
professional qualifications such as certificate of membership of
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and Fellow of the
Chartered Institute of Taxation (FCIT) among others.
As
a married woman and mother, who was never been found wanting in her
twenty-four (24) years of service to the country, the least she deserved
is compassion and encouragement rather than persecution and undignified
maltreatment by the Federal Government.
Note: The Economic Confidential is a sister publication of PRNigeria
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