The Director General of Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), Major General Aniedi Edet, has reacted to the recent protest by some of the corporation’s staff, describing their action as mischievous, baseless, and act of sabotage against the Federal Government’s development programmes.

The DG also warned that the affected staff risked prison terms going by the provisions of the Act of Employees’ conditions of Service, which forbids protest, trade unionism, and strikes by the staff of the Corporation.

Some civilian staff of the Corporation had protested non-enrolment into the Federal Government’s Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), and non-payment of their allowances and salary arrears in the last few years.

However, the staff during a protest in front of the DICON factory located in the Kakuri area, Kaduna South Local Government were seen with a banner conveying their messages to the management including, ‘Enrollment into IPPIS’, ‘Payment of our 6 months’, ‘Payment of 2019 minimum wage arrears’, ‘Stop lopsided payment of allowance’ and ‘Payment of 2022 and 2023 promotion arrears

While explaining to newsmen about the financial entitlements of Staff, the DICON boss said normal official processes were being followed to serve the beneficiaries, but require patience, adding that salaries were always promptly paid.

The DG however, reminded the protesting staff of the provisions of the staff conditions of service and its consequences if violated, saying, “Section 3: ( Sub-section 11): By the provisions of section 11 of the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria ( DICON) Act 1962 it is an offence punishable by imprisonment on conviction of any person employed by the Corporation in any capacity to take part in a strike or trade union activities the management shall establish proper channels of communication with employees in order to address issues affecting their joint or individual interest”.

Major General Edet who took time to explain the workings of the Corporation lamented that the protesting workers kept on telling lies that it is only DICON that is on Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) and as such they should be migrated to Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

According to the DG, “The lies they tell is that it is only DICON that is on GIFMIS. It is not true. It is a government platform. Am I the one who brought GIFMIS? If the government platform is not good, then you are telling Abuja they don’t know what they are doing. I should go and tell Abuja to change it from Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) to Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) And they will stop your salary for six months. It will take sometimes to successfully move from GIFMIS to IPPIS. They will be on my neck if they don’t get a salary for six months. And What about other agencies that are also there on the platform? We are taking this up with the Ministry of Defence and the ministry has noted. The whole staff of DICON have received their April salary.

“And the protesting staff dropped their banner and went to the bank to collect their salaries and came back and picked the banner. They ran to the pressmen to report the protest. Did they tell the pressmen about the salary? So they misinformed the pressmen that it is only DICON that is on GIFMIS. Every defence agency is on GIFMIS, they collect their salary and pay.” (The Nation)

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