. . . As Aregbesola turns blind eye on appeal to reverse forceful retirement

A new twist has been added to the forceful and premature retirements of seven Assistant Controller Generals (ACGs) of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), formerly known as the Nigerian Prison Service.

The retired officers have not been given their formal retirement letters since June 15, 2021 when they were asked to go on retirement.

This is just as not only their names have been removed from the service official payrolls, none of the retirees has been given the official letter of retirement as required by law and extant regulations.

The senior officers who ordinarily should have gone on retirement with their service vehicles, as has been the custom, have also been directed through a radio message (internal circular) sighted by PRNigeria titled: Revalidation of Retired Officers’ Vehicles and reference no. NPS.577/S/VOL.111/211 dated August 9th, 2021 to return their vehicles.

The circular was signed by a Deputy Controller General (DCG) Akinrujumu Tosin J on behalf of the Controller General of Corrections.

The exercise has since commenced on the required date of the revalidation which was August 16th, 2021.

The seven top officials include ACG Clementina Okereke, ACG Bello Bomoi, ACG Abubakar Y. Garba, ACG Babangida Y. Mohammed. Others are: ACG Petr I. Pevigo, ACG Yusuf O. Kasali and ACG Chiabua C.V Uche.

PRNigeria also gathered that the directive which was from the Controller General of the Correctional Service asked the ACGs/Zonal Coordinators of zones A-H and Controllers in charge of State Commands to assist in disseminating the information to the retirees within their area of operations.

The Radio Message also noted that the retired officers with official vehicles whose names were listed should come forward with whichever vehicles they must have retired with for revalidation and clearance of their papers.

The seven retired officers have since sent an official notification to the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to have an audience with him, but the Minister instead turned blind eye to the request.

In their appeal to the Minister, the officials had requested the service to pay them upfront the salaries for the remaining number of months they should have served before being due for retirement, pay them their promotion arrears for the rank of ACGs because it is on record that those promoted with effect from January 2019 have since been paid, while they are also demanding their allowances due to them in respect of the transfers known as (MOP) which they underwent while in service.

The appeal to the Interior Minister was made because several meetings with the Controller General of Corrections CG Haliru Nababa has not yielded the desired results.

It was gathered that none of the retired officers was senior to the new CG which is evident in the staff nominal rolls.

For instance, there are three DCGs who were promoted with effect from 1st January, 2019 and 2020, and by that are senior to the CGC whose date of appointment is April 2021.

Surprisingly, the DCGs were left in the service, while the seven ACGs whose dates of promotional appointment are 1st January, 2018. (PRNigeria)

Update news