Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has sacked Franklyn Nlerum, Rivers State Director-General of Bureau of Public Procurement barely four months after Senior Civil Servants made allegations against him.
The Governor’s directive was conveyed in a Government Statement endorsed by Nkem Nwadibe, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Project Costing and Due Process.
The statement said the government has directed Nlerum to hand over all government properties in his possession to the Manager of Finance of the Bureau of Public Procurement.
The statement further said the sack of Nlerum, a lawyer, was with immediate effect and that the name of the Acting Director-General of Public Procurement would be announced later.
P.M.NEWS checks showed that the sacked DG in October last year had a running battle with the members of the Rivers State branch of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCN) who accused him of a failed attempt to divert the sum of N540 million from the Bureau’s account to a private company called Metropole Development Company.
Nlerum denied the allegation, describing it as baseless and an attempt to tarnish his image.
The crisis reached its peak to the extent that the angry workers barricaded the entrance to office of the Bureau of Public Procurement and called on the state government to probe Nlerum’s handling of the Bureau’s finances.
At the time of the standoff between the workers and the embattled DG,the State Secretary of the Association of Senior Civil Servants, Bashman Mohammed, a lawyer, had at a media briefing in Port Harcourt, threatened that the association would call its members out for full blown strike if the DG continued to victimize workers for querying his style of administration.
Mohammed also accused Nlerum of continuous victimisation of perceived vocal staff and union leaders in the agency, and cited the case where the Head of Finance, Mr. Imaitor Oghu, was redeployed to Public Affairs Department following his refusal to sign the diversion of N540 million to Metropole Development Limited on the instruction of the Director General.
Other allegations by the association’s secretary was that the Director General unlawfully seized staff salaries and that all attempts made by the association to resolve the issue had fallen on deaf ears, and accused Nlerum of running the agency in contravention of the extant legislations establishing the bureau and the Public Service Rules.
Mohammad also alleged that: “The director general had embarked on vicious victimisation of perceived vocal staff and union leaders in BoPP. Prima Facie cases are: Mr. Imaitor Oghu, who refused to sign a diversion of N540 million to Metropole Development Limited on the instruction of the director general, was purportedly redeployed to Public Affairs Department, and Mrs Anne Elechi Etuk, the Unit Secretary was equally purportedly suspended on some unfounded allegations.”
Nlerum had denied all the allegations and said his hands were clean and was no afraid of inquest.
It was not clear at press time if his sack had to do with the outcome of the findings of the state government on the previous allegations against the DG.
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