The Conference of Autochthonous Ethnic Communities Development Association (CONECDA) Youth Wing has threatened to shut down the country over the staff retrenchment exercise carried out by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently.

They described the exercise as unjust, alleging that majority of the sacked workers were indigenes of the North Central geopolitical zone. Coordinator of CONECDA Youth Wing, Mr. Paul Dekete stated this yesterday while reacting to the staff retrenchment that took place at the Jos branch of the apex bank.

Dekete called on President Bola Tinubu, the National Assembly, governors of the North Central and South Eastern states to intervene in the matter before it becomes too late. He reiterated that the move was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the administration of Tinubu.

According to him, statistics has shown that people within the Middle Belt and North Central geopolitical zone, as well as the South Eastern region remain the most targeted without any reasons for such actions

He said: “The nature of the sack shows an attempt to cripple the Middle-Belt region. Such states as Gombe, Plateau and Benue were the most affected. In Gombe state, five people cutting across deputy directors to assistant directors’ cadre were dismissed.

“In Plateau, 80 percent of the staff in the executive cadre were sacked, including one who had three days to retire and arrangements already concluded for her exit.

“Benue is not spared either as a number of deputy dire, who was transferred from Abuja to Awka branch in December was involved in a road accident in April during which he almost lost his life on his way back to Awka after visiting his family in Abuja. He was still recuperating when he got sacked.

“A widow from the region who is currently nursing her trauma was also sacked due to the re-organisation exercise.”

Dekete reiterated an earlier call that the National Assembly should investigate the CBN to understand the rationale behind the mass sack and the criteria used.

“The CBN must follow established procedures for staff reduction as laid out in its Human Resource (HR) manual and best practices worldwide.

“The insensitive termination letters should be withdrawn and replaced with more appropriate documentation that reflects the employees’ work records. All termination decisions should be reviewed to ensure compliance with CBN HR policy and public service rules. This may involve reinstating some employees, who were dismissed without proper justification.”

He said that the terminated staff deserve fair compensation to mitigate the economic hardship they face in the face of dislodgement. “So, as youths of the Middle Belt, as youths of the North Central, we will not sit down and watch people who have served the country to this level and this time treated as no body.

“And that is why we are calling on the President, and the National Assembly to take charge, if not, we will shut down this country because of this kind of attitude against our people.” (Daily Sun, but headline rejigged)

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