The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organisation has raised eye-brow over the appointment of Chief Mike Omeri, the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in the Jonathan campaign organisation, saying that it is an act of impunity, and violation of the NOA Act.
The Campaign organisation argued that his appointment into a purely political position is in violation of Part 2 Section 6 (2) of the National Orientation Agency Act which expressly prescribes that the Director General of NOA should be “non-partisan.”
The Campaign organization describes this behavior as unbecoming and designed to compromise and undermines the rules and principles on which the nation’s public service was founded. It added that this action jeopardises the neutrality, reputation and position of the service as an institution of governance.
In a statement signed by Mallam Garba Shehu, Director of Media and Publicity of the organization, the APC Campaign condemned the inclusion of Mike Omeri who is currently serving in one of the federal government agencies, in the Media and Publicity sub-committee of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation.
According to the APC Campaign, the action is in bad taste and contravenes the public service rules to which all public servants including the DG of the NOA is bound.
The statement said that the publication of the name of the NOA DG in some national dailies with other members of the PDP publicity sub-committee is insensitive, reckless and in poor taste.
The campaign organization made it clear that the unprecedented step of co-opting public servant of any cadre into a political party’s campaign structure “amounts to making the concerned public officer partisan and therefore a calculated attempt to pollute the reliability and appeal of the public service.”
It called on the President to remedy this blunder by ensuring that Mike Omeri is dropped from the PDP Media and Publicity sub-committee without delay, considering that it contravenes Part 2 Section 6 (2) of the rules and regulations for the appointment of the DG of NOA. The section, APC explained, states, inter alia that the DG of the agency shall be non-partisan.
“In this election season, the helmsman of the NOA by the law establishing it, should be in the forefront of the campaign for peaceful and credible election and not to be seen to be collaborating with the ruling PDP,” the APC Campaign said. [myad]
Advertisement
