Cancel secret, sectional recruitment or face action, Amiwero tells NPA

National President of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), ‎Mr. Lucky Amiwero, has asked the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to brace up for legal actions or cancel its reported recent secret, sectional recruitment in parts of the north.   The secret exercise, allegedly carried out through the Human Resources Manager, Bukar Yahaya, held on November 10, with the selected applicants assembled at the AbdulAzeez Yari Conference Hall of Tahir Guest Palace in Kano State, sequel to a similar one in Bauchi State. The applicants, said to be candidates of some influential persons, were reportedly hand-picked. Stating the need for Nigerians to sue the agency for such illegality even after President Muhamadu Buhari had embargoed fresh recruitments by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Amiwero described the conduct of the Hadiza Bala Usman-led NPA management as illegal, cynical, and a contravention of the constitution. Amiwero, who was reacting to the protests by some applicants who lost out in the exercise that was discovered to have been pre-arranged to favour some selected persons, said it was cynical for a federal agency to hold secret recruitment, more so after government had stopped all recruitments in MDAs. He stressed that the agency does not belong to a section of the country, querying: “Why should a federal agency embark on recruitment in a section of the country? That is cynical. It is illegal, it contravenes the constitution, contravenes the principle of federal character; it is wrong and must be rejected in its entirety.” President Buhari had embargoed fresh recruitments by MDAs during his presentation of the 2018 Budget to the National Assembly, except by presidential approval, to enable the Federal Government manage its rising personnel cost, which was expected to rise by 12 per cent in 2018, leading to a N26 billion rise in overhead cost.