By SULEIMAN SHEHU

A human rights body, Concerned Group, has kicked against the appointment of Dr Zacharia Yaduma, as the new Director-General, Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN), Ibadan, calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to reverse it.

The group, in a petition signed by Kelvin Onaolapo and Wasiu Olatiregun, the President and Secretary, respectively, described the appointment as “a back-door appointment”.

The petitioners, however, urged Buhari to reverse it on the ground that it violated the extant law of the institute, saying, it has failed anything that could be described as moral, just and fair.

The petition was copied to the National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives), Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Department of State Security (DSS), Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the Media.

It was titled: “Criminal Subversion of Due Process in the Appointment of New Director-General for Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN), Ibadan.”

The group leaders urged the president to urgently reverse what was described as “illegal and criminal act and allow the appointment process already set in motion to be completed.

“It is only by that that morale would not be killed, hard work would not be discouraged and industrial unrest would not be incubate,” they said.

Onaolapo and Olatiregun decried what they described as “the ambush of the appointment process put in place by the management of the institute”.

According to them, the said appointment was “in flagrant violation of the extant law and any known principle of decency, integrity, discipline and morality.

“Here is a man, who is not a research scientist and there’s no record of his application for the post during the window of application, not to talk of being shortlisted for interview and no interview was conducted anywhere.

“What a criminal subversion of due process and what a lopsided, reckless and impudent appointment?

“By the appointment, caution was thrown to the winds and due process served to the dogs on the altar of impunity and lack of consideration for the feelings of fellow beings,” they said.

The institute, with the provision of the legal framework through the 2018 FRIN Establishment Act, “enables research scientists of the institute to adopt Professorial Cadre.

“Since the coming into being of the Act in 2018, no fewer than six Research Scientists had been promoted to the Professorial Cadre and many Associate Research Scientist Professors produced.

“Section 6 (2) of the same Act stipulates that the Institute should be headed by a Research Scientist Professor.

“A layman interpretation of the law quoted above is that a non-scientist researcher has no business aspiring to lead the institute, just as Professors from the universities are also excluded.

“And with in-house six Research Scientist Professors and many Associate Research Scientist Professors, FRIN has no dearth of qualified and legally sanctioned personnel to lead the institute,” the group said. (NAN)

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