The staff of Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) have accused its Acting Executive Secretary, Prof Ambrose Voh, of incompetence, abuse of office and leadership failure.
Mr Adewale Oloyede, the Chairman of the Joint Action Committee of ARCN, made this known in an interview with NAN on Friday in Abuja.
Oloyede said that the workers had been protesting since last week, asking the Federal Government to remove Voh and the Director of Knowledge Management, Dr Celestine Ikuenobe, from office.
“The two officers were smuggled into the agency and they are guilty of gross incompetence, abuse of office and leadership failure.
“We are doing this because there are a lot of contentious issues in the council but the main issue that led to the protest of Sept. 27 is that of staff screening
“That day, members of staff, who were due for promotion, underwent screening and the acting executive secretary, who is supposed to be the chairman the committee for senior staff screening, was nowhere to be found; he was represented by Ikuenobe.’’
Oloyede said that the members of staff became angry about the development and this eventually led to their protest.
“Ikuenobe was asking the workers, who were undergoing screening, questions that were not relevant to the promotion; instead, he was intimidating them and telling them that they could not be promoted.
“He said that the workers needed additional qualifications to enable them to qualify for promotion, and this is not tenable in the council.
“We are not a research organisation; we do not have research focus and there is a circular to that effect from the Head of Service in 2015; we are to supervise, regulate and coordinate the institutes under us,’’ he said.
Oloyede stressed that Ikuenobe’s intimidation led to the workers’ agitation, which he had to coordinate as a leader of the workers’ union.
He said that Ikuenobe, who represented the acting executive secretary at the screening, failed to listen to demand of the workers and, instead, accused them of trying to obstruct the screening process.
“However, Ikuenobe later apologised for the misunderstanding and the case was settled but when the acting executive secretary returned from his trip, he called for a staff meeting.
“He addressed us like a father; we all maintained peace and every member of staff was pleased.
“To our surprise, on Monday morning, 15 of us were served letters from Divisional Police Office in Mabushi, asking us to report and explain what had happened.
“When we got the letters, we went to the office of the acting executive secretary and showed them to him; he said that he was aware of the letters and told us go to the police office to explain ourselves.
“We went to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and reported the case to the Permanent Secretary; we told him what was going on and he called Prof. Voh,’’ he said.
Oloyede said that the members of staff decried what the acting executive secretary had done and feared that the worst might still happen because they longer had any confidence in his leadership style.
“The acting executive secretary was smuggled back into office after his retirement from here at 60 years; he will be 65years old next month.
“He should go back to wherever he is coming from; we have professors who have retired here at 60 years, we were tolerating him because of his age and he is still treating us anyhow.
“We want this place to be sanitised, our regulatory bodies, FMARD and Presidency, should remove the acting executive secretary and Ikuenobe to enable the agency to achieve its aims, objectives and fulfil its mandate.
Responding, the acting executive secretary said that the ongoing workers protest was as a result of the senior staff promotion exercise, which was done last month in his absence.
Voh said that he was out of the country to represent the Minister of Agriculturel and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, at an international conference in Uganda.
“At the screening, Dr Ikuenobe stood in for me but some of the members of staff organised themselves and created a scene on my return.
“Ikuenobe explained everything to me and that they insisted that he had to apologise for what he did not do.
“On receiving the report and as the chief executive officer of the council, I have to maintain law and orders; so, we invited the police to intervene,’’ he said.
Voh said that the Governing Board of ARCN approved the guidelines and requirements for staff promotion, as stated in the Act establishing the council.
“These functions reside in the governing board and that is what we have used.
“The requirement of academic degree for promotion is only applicable to academic research institutes because those are the research officers or veterinary research officers.
“We are on the salary scale of research institutes; that is what we enjoy; of course, we earn more than the core ministry workers.
“The added requirement is that as research officers, it is virtually impossible for you to enjoy one thing and decide to disregard what is required to enable you to enjoy the thing,’’ he added.
