NDLEA Chairman in trouble over promotions

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) is facing a serious morality question at its Headquarters in Lagos and Abuja, following the recent promotion exercise carried out by the agency’s management.

The promotion is tearing the agency apart as several petitions have been sent to the Head of Service and Office of the Civil Service of the Federation, Federal Secretariat Abuja.

According to the petitioner, the recent promotion is reeking nothing but crass nepotism and maladministration. The source said the exercise was meant to promote some sections of the country to vantage positions of the agency.

In a petition dated 26 April 2013 and written by Musa Daboro, a staff of the agency against the Chairman and Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Alhaji Ahmadu Giade, entitled Disobedience To Superior Circulars By NDLEA Chairman, Alhaji Ahmadu Giade and sent to Daily Signpost the petitioner said Giade disobeyed several circulars from the Federal Civil Service Commission and Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation in promoting officers and Men of the agency.

The petitioner said Giade disobeyed the Federal Civil Service Commission on Review of Policy on Promotion and Granting of officers of the agency Notional Promotion.

The aggrieved staff said in a Ref No: FC.6243/s.1/VoL. XVIII/5 dated 28 May, 2010 ordering him to review the promotion officers was not heeded to by Giade. According to Daboro, the Chairman received the circular on 7 June, 2010 but has refused to comply with the order.

The petitioner highlighted that prior to the circular from the Federal Service Commission; most of the agency’s officers of different ranks were in arrears of two promotions. Instead of the promotion, Giade was said to have conducted promotion Examination/Interviews for only one promotion but failed to clear the arrears of promotion for those that were due for promotion as stipulated by the circular.  “As can be seen from the attached list of officers promoted after the circulars, the effective date of promotion of the promoted officers became due on different dates like 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, respectively. This shows that at the time the circular was released and the last promotion exercise conducted, those whose effective dates were 2006 and 2007 were already due for two promotions and NDLEA Chairman was supposed to clear those arrears of promotion in accordance with paragraph 2 of the circular but he refused to comply”, Daboro stated in his petition.

According to Daboro, those that were due in 2006 and 2007 were not promoted but those that were due in 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively were promoted. With Giade’s new promotion exercise, Daboro said the Chairman has succeeded in generating problems and confusion in NDLEA. He said those that merited being in 4-5 years senior in rank are now rank mates with their juniors who are just due this year; a situation which is generating bad blood in the agency.

“Giade’s alleged failure and refusal to act appropriately in accordance with Federal Service Commission’s directive has made some officers to be in the same rank with officers they senior with five years,” Daboro said.

The petitioner also claimed that the officers on the rank of Chief Narcotic Agent (CAN) have not been promoted to their next rank of Assistant Superintendent of Narcotics 2(ASN11), for the past eleven years.

“Even when the last promotion exercise was conducted in December, 2010, none of them was considered for promotion. You can confirm this from the attached list of 2010 promotions”.

It was gathered that in 2011, NDLEA employed new officers and gave them the rank of ASN11 equivalent of Grade Level 8 while those that supposed to be their seniors by 8 years are kept stagnated on the rank of CAN.

“Do we then expect those on the rank of CAN to see and respect those on the rank of ASN11, as their seniors in line with paramilitary tradition”? Daboro queried. Daboro observed in his petition that NDLEA is a paramilitary organization which emphasizes hierarchical seniority and discipline but wondered why the Chairman and Chief Executive of the agency has succeeded in turning things upside down creating confusion and indiscipline in the agency. He said to worsen the situation, NDLEA Chairman in a meeting with members of the staff on 13 April, 2013 fixed promotional examination for officers on May 1, 2013 in Jos, Plateau State.

It was in Jos that the officers were told for the first time about the circular on Review (Cancellation) of Policy on Granting of Notional Promotion. When the Times-Table for the promotion examination was released, Giade deliberately dropped officers on the rank of CAN, who have not been promoted for past 11 years.

“What is our offence? By now, we are supposed to be on the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Narcotics (DSN), equivalent of Grade Level 10.” Daboro, a victim of Giade’s action said.

“Sir, paragraph 3 of the circular states that any MDA that fails to conclude its promotion arrears before the above deadline 30 November, 2010 would be held responsible for the non-promotion of its staff and would be accordingly sanctioned”. According to Daboro, thousands of NDLEA officers and NDLEA as an organization are suffering from failed leadership of the chairman to heed the instructions of Federal Civil Service Commission and needs sanction and not the officers that deserved their rightful promotions.

Ending his petition, Musa Daboro prayed to the Head of Service to urgently intervene in the matter by suspending the May 2013 Promotion Examination and properly verify and settle all the issues raised in the petition in order to ensure that every officer of NDLEA is properly placed where they belong to keep the discipline that has been in the agency in tact while restoring the respect the agency has garnered over the years.

“The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) is disorganized and headed for the rocks. Morale has plummeted and unconcealed general staff discontent has assumed a life form and threatens to quicken the demise of the Agency that is already plagued with multifarious and endemic malaises”, another staff stated.

 According to our source, the Chairman and Chief Executive of the agency, Mallam Ahmadu Giade’s eight years administrative style in NDLEA was total failure and was meant to savvy the Bauchi State indigenes in the agency to the detriment of other geo-political zones of the country.

  “Ahmadu Giade, the septuagenarian Chairman/Chief Executive of the Agency has turned the NDLEA into a fiefdom for the past eight years or thereabout, no one was prepared for the brazen show of impunity and bizarre favoritism in his unilateral promotion of a member of staff of NDLEA from Bauchi, Giade’s home state”, the source stated.

 Daily Signpost gathered that a particular staff one Isa Haruna, from Bauchi the same state with Giade was given a “special promotion”. The source, a senior staff of the Agency claimed that the staff was promoted from the rank of Chief Narcotic Agent (Three Bars) to Deputy Superintendent of Narcotics (Three Stars).

Our source who resides in Abuja said Giade has made sure that Yoruba, Igbo and South-South officers are under his kinsmen.

“By this singular but queer action, Giade has not only aided the transformation of his kinsman from other rank cadre into the officer cadre but has made him a superior officer and thereby placed him effectively above many others who are his senior”. Our source added.

It was gathered that the special promotion of Haruna by Giade has disdainfully disregarded the Agency’s Civil Servant rules and failed to follow due process.  

Investigation by Daily Signpost revealed that the promotion is causing disquiet among the senior staffers at the agency who squaring for war against the Chairman. The rumbling at Shaw Road Headquarters of the agency has forced Giade to quickly release a circular explaining his actions.

 When Daily Signpost visited the office of the agency last week, it was discovered that the beneficiary of the special promotion, Isa Haruna was SN 4701 Course 10/1998 and joined the agency in 1998 with West African School Certificate. His contemporaries, who joined the same year with him, are still on their ranks of Narcotic Agent (NA) and CNA respectively. He was promoted to Chief Narcotic Agent and later to SNA. It was further gathered that when he was due to write his promotional examination from Narcotic Agent (NA) to Senior Narcotic Agent (SNA) in 2001, he failed some of the courses and had to resit to qualify for promotion at a future date.

Our source said when he eventually passed; some of his colleagues who passed their promotional examination at one sitting were supposed to be his seniors according by the Agency’s rules on promotion but this was never followed by the management of the agency. But instead, Daily Signpost gathered that he was still deemed qualified to sit for the promotion examination from SNA to CNA in 2004, which he missed as a result of administrative lapses.

“In 2009, he eventually took the exams and passed but was not promoted in spite of his several letters of complaints to the selfsame Ahmadu Giade due to further administrative ineptness. When he was considered ripe to take the conversion examination, he did and failed. Passing the conversion examination is prerequisite for entry into the officer cadre as Assistant Superintendent of Narcotics II. It is therefore preposterous, an abuse of privilege and office and derogation from service discipline to grant special promotion from CNA to DSN. If indeed it was granted that the officer had passed his exams at the right time and had passed the conversion exam as well, he would at best be on the rank of ASNII”, our source recounted.

 In an internal memo defending the ‘special promotion’ of Haruna, circulated by Giade with   ref. no. NDLEA/CCEO/45/VOL.V and dated 16^th May, 2013, the Chairman and Chief Executive said the special promotion was for Haruna’s courage, tenacity and perseverance to remedy the wrong done to him… following the due process as enshrined in NDLEA Order” and because “other officers with less problems had written petitions to higher places requesting for external intervention”.

Daily Signpost learned that this is not the first time Ahmadu Giade would single out Bauchi State indigene for preferential treatment even when the problem had affected many other officers.

One Sa’ad Halidu, an NA Course 9/1997 Agent from Bauchi state was said to have gone for conversion examination and the results showed that he failed a paper but Giade ordered that his failed paper be singled out for re-mark and was subsequently promoted. Another Bauchi indigene allegedly benefitted from Giade’s alleged nepotism He is one Suleiman Ahmed Ningi from Bauchi state. He was alleged to have received double promotion from level 14 to 16 in 2010 for no apparent reason and following no justifiable parameter.

“The only discernable motive for accelerating their promotion over others who were in fact senior to them is ethnic/tribal consideration and desire to place them in competitively more advantageous positions for appointments”. Our source stated. When contacted on phone, NDLEA’s spokesman, Mitchell Ofoyeju said Isa Haruna truly sat for the promotion examination in 2013 but that during the collation of results, it was discovered that that there were errors which resulted in not computing all his marks and by so doing, he was failed wrongly initially but with further enquiries, the missing marks were recovered and accurately computed. “This led to his result being changed and he was passed”, Ofoyeju stated. “The same also happened in the case of Sa’ad Mohammed”. Collaborating Ofoyeju’s statement, a circular from the office of the Chairman /Chief Executive dated 16 May 2013 with REF NO; NDLEA/CCEO/45/VOL.V entitled Patience and Loyalty in Pursuing Justice and signed by Giade said the rapid and accelerated promotion of Haruna was as the case of glaring injustice done to him. “The attention of the Management has been drawn to the case of glaring injustice done to one of the NDLEA personnel and his courage, tenacity and perseverance to remedy the wrong done to him”, Giade stated in his circular to all the staff.

Explaining further, the circular reads that the officer in question was attached to Kaduna State Command sometimes in 2002, and when a colleague of his with the same name died, it was reported to the Headquarters and the service number of the officer was mistakenly used instead of the deceased’s number. It was learned that the mistake led to the filing of the notification of death in the officer’s file and subsequent removal of his name from the staff nominal roll. Giade’s circular said because of the removal of the officer’s name, his salary was stopped while that of the deceased continued. He said it took six months of investigation to discover the cause of the mistake. Having realized the problem, the officer’s salary was restored and arrears of six months paid. Giade further stated that when the six month salary was paid, the name of the officer was not restored in the agency’s nominal roll. “He was to sit for 2004 promotion examinations from SNA to CAN but his name did not appear in the list. He forwarded a complaint and patiently waited.” Giade stated in his circular, justifying while Haruna was astronomically promoted above his seniors.

“In 2005 promotion examinations, his name did not also appear, then it was discovered that his name is still not in the nominal roll, and having missed the two opportunities, he had to wait for the next promotion examinations, which came up in 2009 where he sat for SNA to CAN and passed. Unfortunately, when the result was released, his name was not in the list, the implication been he did not sit for the examinations”.

According to the circular made available to Daily Newswatch, Giade said Haruna wrote to his office complaining of non promotion. He said when proper investigation was conducted; it revealed that Haruna passed ‘very well’.

“While it’s obvious to state that all the problems were not in any way caused by the staff, he took everything with philosophical calmness and doggedly fought for his right following the due process as enshrined in NDLEA Order. Other officers with fewer problems had written petitions to higher places requesting for external intervention but not this officer. His case is test for officers who despite our challenges still believe the best way to change the system is from within,”

Giade’s circular explained. The management appreciates his inner strength, quality, devotion and total commitment.

As a reward for all the injustice done to him by the system, I have granted his prayers and promoted him from CAN to DSN for believing in the system and a lesson to officers who are victims of injustice but bear with patience and loyalty”, Giade ended his circular.

He asked all the Directors, Commanders and Heads of Units of the agency to put in practice the example he has shown in the case of Haruna, promoting their subordinates above their seniors.

It would be recalled the President Goodluck Jonathan recently sacked the Immigration boss, Rosemary Chinyere Uzoma, the controller-general of the Nigeria Immigration Service for alleged ethnic bias in the recruitment of new officers.