By Laleye Dipo in Minna
A new twist was added to the crisis rocking the National Examination Council (NECO) as a group in the organisation on Thursday revealed how a very senior member of staff employed his wife and three of his children into the organisation the same day.
The group also claimed that the senior official signed the employment letters of over 300 staff illegally employed into the organisation by the suspended Registrar of the organisation, Prof. Charles Uwakwe.
The governing council of NECO had a forthnight ago removed the registrar and suspended two top officials for alleged fraud running into billions of naira allegedly perpetrated through illegal award of contracts and the recruitment of 300 staff without following due process.
The governing council also set up a five-man committee to investigate the alleged wrongdoings by the senior officials of the organisation.
The committee was yet to complete its assignment.
The group, “Vanguard for Justice and Good Governance”, in a one-page petition told the governing council that it was wrong to exempt the person that employed his wife and three children into the organisation “while some others are being punished for the same offence”.
The petition signed by one Salihu Ahmed, president of the group, and sent to the governing council, the probe panel and the media claimed that the official was left off the hook because of “his closeness to the powers that be in and outside this state and because of the part of the country he came from”.
The petitioners said the claim by the senior official in response to a query issued to him that he signed the employment letters under duress was not enough reason for him not to be investigated, adding: “did he also recruit his wife and three children under duress?”
The group therefore asked the governing council not to only suspend the official but send him to face the probe panel too in the “interest of justice, equity and fairness”.
