Tag Archives: Lopsided

Senate Probes Secret Recruitment, Lopsided Appointments In NHIS

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The Senate Tuesday commenced investigation into alleged illegal recruitment and lopsided appointments of some management staff of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

The probe also covers NHIS expenditure on trainings and travels.

Management staff of the scheme led by its Executive Secretary, Mr. Usman Yusuf, appeared before the Senate Committee on Health yesterday to answer question bordering on alleged illegal recruitment, lopsided appointments and expenditure on training and travels.

Yusuf told the committee that the new recruits were on “secondment” and not on appointment.

Asked if the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, who was present at the hearing, was aware of the “secondments” in the NHIS, the Executive Secretary answered in the negative.

He said, “No, he (Adewole) is not aware.”

The committee queried the NHIS boss why he spent N150 million on trainings and travels between January and June 2016, while the amount spent for the same purposes between July, August and September was between N2 million and N4 million, and the sum of N412 million was spent for the same purposes in October alone.

The committee noted that it received a petition against the NHIS in which the petitioner claimed that while the number of general managers of NHIS was raised from 23 to 25, their appointments were not in line with the Federal Character principle.

The panelists however declined to disclose the name of the petitioner as well as to provide
a copy of the petition to Yusuf.

The committee said that the petitioner claimed that the North-Central geopolitical zone, which had three representatives, now had five.

The petitioner was also said to have claimed that the North-East, which had three, now has
four while the North-West was raised from six to nine; South-East remained three; South-South dropped from four to three; while South-West reduced from four to one.

Yusuf insisted that, “It will be for the sake of fair hearing that I get a copy of the petition before I respond (to the allegation). I am not aware of any petition and I can only respond to the petition that I can see and read. I need to know what is in the petition and where the petition is coming from.”

Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Lanre Tejuoso, said that Yusuf should be able to state if the figures were correct or not even without seeing the petition or knowing it came from.

The Executive Secretary insisted on seeing the petition before confirming or refuting the allegations.

He said, “I need fair hearing; I need to see a copy of that petition.”

The committee declined to grant the request for the NHIS boss to see a copy of the petition before responding to the allegations

The committee said that since the allegations were against the NHIS and the person of Yusuf, they were not obliged to give out a copy of the petition to the Executive Secretary.
A member of the committee, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, noted the committee would confirm the allegations after going through the nominal roll of the NHIS.
The committee said that the NHIS boss failed to provide its nominal roll, which was the first information it requested from the scheme.

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Senate probes secret recruitment, lopsided appointments in NHIS

Presidency Dismisses Metuh’s Lopsided Anti- Graft War Allegations

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The Presidency has reacted swiftly to the allegation made by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

On the allegation of witch-hunting its members, the President’s Adviser on Media, Mr Femi Adesina, said that ordinarily he would not want to comment on such because they were comments coming from a political party and response are better from the APC leadership.

He, however, said that concerning the President, it was untrue for Mr Olisa Metuh to claim that the President’s anti-corruption war was one-sided.

According to him, “Mr Olisa Metuh is sounding like a broken record. It’s the same thing that he says all the time. But let me assure Nigerians that the President has always maintained that even when it affects APC members, the person concerned must go and defend himself.”

The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr Olisa Metuh, had said at a news conference in Abuja, that unfolding events have confirmed the party’s position that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is only using the anti-corruption posture as a tool to witch-hunt PDP members and perceived political opponents of the APC government.

He stated that no member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), despite the public petitions of corruption and squandering of state funds, has been invited, questioned or arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

But Mr Adesina wondered why the issue was not whether the people facing the EFCC actually committed the crime but Mr Metuh is saying that it is one-sided.

“I think what is of interest to Nigerians is ‘did this people commit the crime?’ not whether it is one-sided,” he said.

Credit: channelstv

Jonathan’s Loyalists Write Buhari Over Lopsided Anti-graft Crusade

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Political aides of former President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday sent a protest letter to President Muhammadu Buhari over alleged disparity in the on-going investigation into cases of corrupt practices against some political appointees under the last administration.

The former political aides of the former President, under the aegis of the Voice of the South-South, declared that though they supported the anti-corruption crusade of President Buhari with the belief that it would be done with justice and equity, adding that the exclusion of the former presidents who are northerners and other APC stalwarts showed lopsidedness, selective justice and bias.

A statement issued yesterday at the end of an emergency meeting presided over by the state Chairman, Alex Dumbo and Chairman of the group’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Mr. Mike Ogiasa, stated that the cases of former Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and the late D.S.P. Alamieyeseigha have shown the bias of President Muhammadu Buhari in handling anti-corruption matters.

According to the group: ”First, we observed that immediately the past Minister of Petroleum Resources was purportedly arrested in London, the Department for Security Service (DSS) promptly invaded her home in Nigeria. Apart from Mrs. Alison-Madueke, we are yet to see or hear the arrest of any of the rest 42 ministers who served in the immediate past administration…”

Read More: ngrguardiannews