Date Published: 02/05/10

NIGER DELTA COALITION IN THE DIASPORA

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PRESS RELEASE

DUE PROCESS MADNESS IN BAYELSA STATE: : MASS SACK OF WORKERS  BASED ON FALSE BIOMETRIC EXERCISES

Niger Delta Coalition in the Diaspora (NDCID), a pressure group representing the interests of Niger Delta people in Diaspora, has expressed dismay over the unprofessional conduct of the Bayelsa State Due Process Bureau for the mass sack of workers based on incorrect biometric exercises. The Coalition asserted that while the ‘ghost workers’ syndrome cannot be ruled out in the Civil Service, the Coalition observed with shock that even genuinely employed Bayelsans have been laid off.

The Coalition accused the Due Process Bureau of inefficiency and challenged the Directors to publicize the results of the biometric exercises, alleging that the sacking of workers is designed to divert public about from the glaring inefficiencies and sharp practices in the Bureau. The Coalition makes a passionate plea to Governor Timipre Sylva to disband the Bureau and revisit the issue to ensure that genuine workers are reinstated, as it will be unfair to render people jobless on the ground of cruelly manipulated biometric exercises.

The Coalition called on the Bureau to scrutinize the nominal roll to distinguish  real workers from the ghost workers. The spokesman of the Coalition Barrister Eghosa Osaro disclosed as unprofessional and unconstitutional the action of the Due Process Bureau to embark on a mass sack of workers when the policy thrust of the Sylva administration is geared towards employment generation and wealth creation.

It will be recalled that recently, the Due Process Bureau in Bayelsa State has come under heavy criticism and many pressure groups have levied allegations of fraud, over-invoicing, and sundry unethical practices against the Directors of the Bureau, while some have called for the sack of the Director General Mr. Von Dimeari Kemedi on the ground of gross incompetence.

In the same vein, Dr. Theophilus Ebikebina , speaking on behalf to the Niger Delta Integrity Group has called for the immediate resignation of all the Directors of the Due Process Bureau and e-Governance Bureau because its existence is illegal, because in his words’ A Statutory body as the Due Process Bureau, which plays the role of price intelligence, and lays down rules for public procurement has failed to submit its directors for legislative scrutiny is patently illegal, unjust and illegal”. He alleged that the termination of appointment of duly employed by Bayelsan under the guise of biometric exercise is not only embarrassing but designed to render the administration unpopular. 

It is common knowledge that the Bureau’s operations are fraught with double standard and with serious conflict of interest. The Bureau can now be likened to an Octopus combining the role of price intelligence, award of contracts and public procurement. All these are done on ad hoc basis, as the Bureau has no handbook that guides public procurement and price intelligence- which are conspicuous signposts of incompetence. The Due Process Bureau has utterly abandoned its back-up role in assisting the core Ministries to ensure that government transactions, especially public procurement processes are carried out with due diligence hence the lack of focus of the Directors. In the estimation of the Group, the Bureau may eventually weaken the transparency initiatives of the administration and ultimately destroy the Sylva administration, which is already been suffocated by formidable political adversaries. THE DUE PROCESS IS A FIFTH COLUMN ARM OF THOSE OPPOSED TO DEVELOPMENT IN BAYELSA STATE.  

Barr. Eghosa Osaro