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From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Minister of State Petroleum (Oil) who doubles as Chairman of the Governing Council of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Heineken Lokpobiri, and the Executive Secretary (ES) of the board, Felix Ogbe, assumed a new dimension with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), NCDMB branch shutting down operations.
Ogbe had, on March 4, 2024, in an internal memo announced the redeployment and promotion of six staff, including Ifeanyi Ukoha who was moved from general manager, Accounts and Finance to acting director, Finance and Personnel Management. Also moved were Mofe Megbele, manager, Stakeholders’ Management who was moved to senior technical assistant; Chidinma Adiele, manager, Human Resources Management moved to manager, Corporate Communications; Gloria Osiebe, senior manager, Learning and Development, who became acting general manager, Human Resources Management; Mildred Eskor-Brown, officer, Regulatory Compliance of Legal Services and Obinna Ofili, who was appointed advisor.
There have been grumblings over the redeployment with some staff complaining that it did not follow due process, especially that of Ukoha who was believed to have had his appointment regularised when he had clocked 50 years in violation of extant civil service regulations which places emphasis on age criteria as eligibility for employment.
The office of the minister in his capacity as the chairman of the governing council had on March 5, in a letter to Ogbe, pointed out that the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Content Act 2010 “does not empower the executive secretary to redeploy or appoint management staff.’’
The letter reminded the executive secretary that he does not have the authority to “overturn deployment/redeployment’’ made by the minister in his capacity as the chairman of the governing council.
The executive secretary was, therefore, “strongly advised not to usurp the powers of the governing council on any subject matter’’ while “redeployments announced by the executive secretary to all staff on March 4, 2024 is hereby overturned.’’
PENGASSAN, in a letter to Ogbe on Monday, March 11 signed by the Chairman, Benson Inifie; Secretary, Simeon Esiekpe, and Industrial Relations, Yague James, served notice that they would be proceeding on strike over the ‘seeming impasse’ between him and Lokpobiri.
The union said its indefinite strike will continue pending the resolution of the issue surrounding redeployment of staff.
