The Chairman of the Federal Inland
Revenue Service, Muhammad Nami, has been accused of unlawful retirement of nine
directors of the agency to pave the way for his allies.
Our correspondent was told that
Nami relied on an old civil service rule, which had been suspended to remove
the directors.
The
PUNCH gathered that the government of late President Umaru
Yar’Adua had instituted a civil service rule which made it compulsory for
directors to retire after serving for eight years.
However, the regime of the
President, Maj. Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd), rescinded that directive.
According to new regulations,
civil servants are to leave service after attaining the retirement age of 60 or
spending 35 years in service.
A circular was said to have been
issued to indicate the suspension of the earlier order.
A copy of the document, obtained
by our correspondent and dated June 20, 2016, was also addressed to the FIRS.
“With reference to letter No.
SH/COS/100/A/1462 dated June 17, 2016, I write to convey Mr. President’s
directive that the tenure policy in the Federal Civil Service is suspended with
immediate effect. This notice is for the attention of all concerned for
compliance,” the letter, signed by a former Head of Service, Mrs Winifred
Oyo-Ita, said.
The new regulation was reportedly
upheld by the former Chairman of the FIRS, Mr Babatunde Fowler, as no director
was retired as long as they had not crossed the retirement benchmark.
However, after Nami assumed office
in November 2019, he was said to have instructed that directors who had served
for eight years be retired.
Nine directors received retirement letters in March 2020.
The affected
directors were Victor Ekundayo (Career and Skills Development); Mrs Kemi
Odusanya (Facility); Emmanuel Obeta (Chairman’s Office); Chiaka Okoye
(Programme Office Non-Tax); Mr Kola Okunola (ICT); Dr Asheik Maidugu (Planning
and Statistics); Mr Innocent Ohagwa (Human Capital Development); Mr Ezra Zubair
(Programmes and Policy Monitoring) and Mr Olufemi Faniyi (Team Lead Tax
Operations Group).
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