Senior officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, according to reports have rejected the appointment of Mrs. Roli Bode-George as the new acting Chairman because “she is not an employee of the NDLEA.”
Roli had been appointed acting chairman following Ahmadu Giade’s retirement from the service.
Some of the aggrieved top officers in a petition rejected the appointment of the agency’s erstwhile secretary, Mrs. Roli Bode-George, according to The Nation.
The senior officers say “the appointment of Mrs Roli Bode-George is breeding disaffection in the 25-year old agency.” They appealed to “President Muhammadu Buhari to consider the appointment of one of the directors of NDLEA as the chairman/chief executive.”
“It is interesting to know that both the chairman/chief executive and the secretary of the agency are appointed by the President and Commander-in-Chief in what has been described as two key political appointees on consolidated salary. In view of the end of the tenure of Giade and vociferous clamour for a staff of the agency to take over leadership, it has become necessary to clarify who members of staff of the agency are.”
“It is obvious from the above provisions that the chairman/chief executive and the agency secretary are not staff since their appointments are not in accordance with the terms and conditions of the service of the agency.
“Thus, the clamour for a staff of the agency to take over the top job clearly excludes the secretary of the agency. This is more so, given the fact that Mrs. Roli Bode George, was appointed in October, 2014, as secretary without any law enforcement background,” the petition stated.
They noted that observation from other national agencies showed that the NDLEA secretary was not a suitable replacement for the position of the chairman/chief executive.
The petition added. “When Nuhu Ribadu was removed as the EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, then director of Operations, was appointed as acting chairman.
‘’When Mrs. Farida Waziri was also removed as EFCC chairman, the director of Operation was again made to act as chairman pending appointment of a substantive chairman. On all these occasions, the EFCC also has a secretary.”
