The Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Okon Bassey Ewa, and Directors at the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, NASENI, Abuja, are currently at loggerhead over how the N250 Million bribe, a supposed top secret, leaked to Pointblanknews.com.<\/p>\n
Director-General NASENI, Dr. Mohammed Haruna allegedly paid N150 Million in bribe, a Sport Utility Vehicle, SUV and another promised N100 Million to the Science and Tech Minister to influence his confirmation as the substantive DG of the Agency.<\/p>\n
The two National Assembly committees on science and technology stopped short of issuing a warrant of arrest for the minister following his refusal to appear before the committees to explain the rationale behind the removal of heads of parastatals of the ministry in contravention of public service rules.<\/p>\n
It was learned that the Minister accused the former Director-General of the agency, Professor Adesowo Olusegun, of setting him up by leaking details of the bribery scandal. The former DG, in turn, accused his protege and Acting DG, Dr Mohammed Haruna, of being responsible for the disclosure.<\/p>\n
Following the development, the minister has continued to reshuffle staff in the Ministry and NASENI believed to be leaking information on the matter to the media. The development has also led to a frosty relationship between the trio.<\/p>\n
National Assembly<\/strong><\/p>\n The National Assembly committees sought to clear the air on the rationale behind the minister’s decision to send some directors of parastatals in the ministry on “compulsory sabbatical” while others were moved to the headquarters of NASENI in Idu, Abuja in contravention of public service rules as well as the advice of the Head of Service of the Federation.<\/p>\n The directors involved include Engineer Aliyu\u00a0 Adnan of the Hydraulic Equipment Development Institute (HEDI), Kano, Professor Christian Nwajagu, Scientific Equipment Development Institute (SEDI), Enugu, Dr Steve Mommoh, National Engineering Design Development Institute (NEDDI), Nnewi, Anambra State and Engineer Kole Olunlade, Acting Director, Engineering Materials Development Institute (EMDI).<\/p>\n The minister who initially\u00a0 failed to appear before the committees was threatened with an arrest warrant. On his appearance before the committees, he explained that he received two summons from the two committees\u00a0 at the same time when he returned from his trip abroad. He subsequently agreed to seek again the advice of the head of service on the matter and get back to the committees.<\/p>\n With the Farouk Lawan\/Femi Otedola, fuel subsidy bribery scandal in mind, the chairmen of the committees, it was learnt, refused to travel with the minister on receiving information that he diverted N28 million headed in their direction.<\/p>\n Head of Service<\/strong><\/p>\n The Infrastructure News gleaned a memo addressed to the minister by the Office of the Head of Service\u00a0 drawing his attention to the fact that the 8-year tenure\u00a0 policy for permanent secretaries and directors was not applicable to federal research institutes, colleges of agriculture and allied institutions noting that “Research Academic Cadre Staff may continue until they attain 65 years of age as obtainable in a Nigerian University” The memo also reminded professor Okon Bassey Ewa that NASENI parastatals\u00a0 were established under NASENI ACT and not zonal offices as erroneously believed by the minister.<\/p>\n It further warned that the agencies could\u00a0 sue or be sued.<\/p>\n Interview for NASENI DG Post<\/strong><\/p>\n With the shortlisting of 15 candidates for the post of the DG of NASENI by a committee set up by the minister and the eventual emergence of two candidates, Engineer Dr Stephen Osobookho Momoh and Professor Nwajagu Christian as the most qualified with the required 20 years post doctoral experience, one of the two maybe appointed the next DG of NASENI.<\/p>\n But a group, Society for Good Governance, had petitioned President Goodluck Jonathan over alleged attempt by the minister in concert with the Acting DG of NASENI, Mohammed Haruna, to induce\u00a0 the Director of Administration in the Ministry of Science and Technology with the sum of N200,000 in order to smuggle the Acting DG’s name to the list of those to be interview for the NASENI job. The move, the group alleged, has the backing of the minister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Okon Bassey Ewa, and Directors at the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, NASENI, Abuja, are currently at loggerhead over how the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n