Plateau ethnic nationalities decry skewed employment pattern at State INEC

From Pwanagba Agabus, Jos

The Plateau Initiative for Development and Advancement of the Natives (PIDAN), the umbrella body of all the ethnic nationalities in the State, is worried about the employment pattern of officers from Grade Levels 03-06 of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the State.

PIDAN also called on the Character Commission to beam its searchlight on Plateau INEC.

The group through its President, Prof. Aboi Madaki and Secretary General, Nanle Gujor, said, “These patterns have not only shown biases but are flagrant violation of its rules and a negation of the Federal Character principles.”

According to the group, “For the avoidance of doubt, Section 1.06 vii of INEC Staff Conditions of Service, (2017), states that, all appointments on GL 03-06 (States/FCT offices) shall be indigents of the area in their respective states.

“Section 1.06 further states that without prejudice to the above, the principle of Federal Character must be adhered to in all appointments made by the Commission.

“With cut any fear of contradiction and with available facts at our disposal, PIDAN is categorically saying that Plateau INEC has been violating these provisions in its employment of this category of officers from February 2019 to August 2020.”

PIDAN further maintained that, “The employment pattern negates Constitutional policies on local and states characters.

“In its recent employment of 29 officers on Grade Levels 03-06, only 9 were people indigenous to Plateau, while 20 came from other states and the FCT,” the group lamented.

“Based on the above facts, PIDAN is calling on the Federal Character Commission and any other appropriate government agency to investigate the employment exercises conducted by Plateau INEC as it affects the grade levels mentioned above with the view to correcting this grave violation of the laws at all levels.

“We are aware that previous investigations were swept under the carpets and therefore call on the Federal Character commission to revisit them in addition to doing a thorough work on the issue at stake.

“This we believe will go a long to putting things straight, to avoid violations of the law in future employments by INEC,” PIDAN stressed.