I didn’t ask them to evacuate the Building- Dr. Ali Pantami

Dr. Ali Pantami the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy has been said to evacuate the entire staff of Nigerians in Diaspora (NIDCOM), which includes the Chief Executive Officer of the commission Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, and the other staffs from the NCC complex in Abuja.

According to source the Minister was said to have given the order to security agents who broke into her office and carted away her personal belongings and items, including 140 work stations, personal computers, printers, and other sensitive documents without prior notice.

Dr. Pantami was said to be at loggerheads with the commission, over the office accommodation. Though the Director of Public Affairs of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr. Henry Nkemadu, described the report “evacuation” of the staff of NIDCOM from the 5^th floor of NCC Annex Mbora as mere allegation which should not be taken to heart as that is only going to lead to discord and misinterpretation of the entire incident.

While in a statement issued on Sunday, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, the of Media and Public Relations Unit of NIDCOM, disclosed that the 5^th floor was allocated to the commission by NCC management in June, 2019, and it was handed over by Mrs. Maryam Bayi, the Director of Human Resources.

NIDCOM staff could not move in due to lack of basic facilities in the complex, but were able to move in October, 2019.

Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, was on an official assignment with the President in Addis Ababa, Ethopia, on Friday 9, 2020, when the Minister ordered the staff to pack out of the building within 48hrs without any prior notice as added in the statement.

But “Unfortunately, on Friday 14th February, after the chairman returned from Ethiopia a day before, she visited the complex to shockingly find that offices were broken into and all items, including the 140 workstations, personal computers, printers, sensitive documents and personal belongings of staffs were carted away. The call centre was locked up,” he said.

Mr. Balogun also stated that upon taking delivery of the building, the commission made provision of some furniture, equipment, and infrastructure in the building and proceeded to install workstations for over 140 staffs in November, 2019.

He further added that: “Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Ali Pantami, asked them to pack out with 48hrs of the said quit notice, and they were forcefull evicted by security operatives attached to the complex on the order of the Minister on February 11, 2020.

 “On the allegation that NIDCOM did not move into the offices when allocated, this is untrue, false accusa­tion and contradictory to the statement of NCC to the ef­fect that NIDCOM properties were warehoused and intact in the annex,” the statement added.

Balogun said the commis­sion was notified on the need to evacuate the building with­in one week without any prior notice by the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Umar Garba Danbatta.

He said Dambatta claimed that it was on the order of the minister who also want to oc­cupy the same office space and location.

He said: “By Tuesday, 11th February, 2020, just two days after the initial notice which gave one-week ultimatum, the staff of NIDCOM were denied access into their offices by armed security men from the NSDC who ordered them not to go into the fifth floor office of the commission.”

Meanwhile, NCC has denied a video making the rounds on social media, alleg­ing that the Nigeria Diaspora Commission was ignomini­ously thrown out of the NCC building.

A statement by NCC and made available to Daily Inde­pendent, said: “It is therefore important that the general public is acquiesced with what really transpired with regard to the incident lead­ing to the evacuation of the Diaspora Commission from the NCC building.

According to NCC, “The board of the commission di­rected the decongestion of the head office building. Some of the departments of the NCC had started moving to the new office complex of five floors when discussions were held between the NCC and the Di­aspora Commission to enable the Diaspora Commission also utilize any free offices within the complex. The fifth floor allocated to them had to be used to accommodate other departments from the NCC headquarters to ease the congestion.

“NCC’s offer to house the Nigeria Diaspora Commis­sion was predicated on the long held position of the NCC that agencies of government will achieve more through strategic collaboration, part­nership, synergy and sharing to the extent allowed by rele­vant laws.”

The statement further explained that during the period, the NCC secured ap­proval for the commissioning of the office complex by the president and the launching of four important projects of the NCC and the renamed Ministry of Federal Minis­try of Communications and Digital Economy (FMC&DE): launching and unveiling Broadband Plan 2020 – 2025; commissioning of the Communications and Digital Economy Complex; launch­ing of the Emergency Com­munications Centre and Toll-Free number 112; and flag off of the Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training. ­

“These important proj­ects were a culmination of extensive collaboration be­tween NCC and the other parastatals of the FMC&DE and fittingly the complex was renamed the Commu­nications and Digital Econo­my Complex in tandem with the new drive of the Federal Government towards a digi­tal economy.”

The NCC said it has not withdrawn the offer but had hiccups arising from the preparation for the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to inaugurate the Communications and Dig­ital Economy Complex and launch other projects relat­ing to the mandate of gov­ernment.

“Incidentally, after the of­fer of the office spaces to the Diaspora Commission, the Director General, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, had not visit­ed the complex to take pos­session of any of the offices and also the commission had not started using any of these spaces as offices.

“As is usual in ensuring security and accountability before, during and after pres­idential visits, the building had to be cleared to allow for only known and identifiable persons to have access with­in the complex. Therefore, the Honourable Minister of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, could not have sent armed men to send the staff of the Diaspora Commission out of the Communications and Digital Economy Com­plex.”

By: Ayooluwa Joshua