The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has pushed back on allegations of favoritism in the 11 Statutorily Retiring Staff of the corporation.
A highly placed official familiar with the matter revealed that 11 of its senior management staff and others from its subsidiaries as well as the redeployment of 19 others were part of its normal replacement and backfill process. She dismissed allegations of favouritism – particularly that it favours a particular zone – as baseless and unfounded, given that the replacement of each retiring office is from same zone.
“The reference to lop-sidedness in some media report is misplaced, she stressed. “It’s part of normal replacement process for those that are due for statutory retirement. We normally get approvals ahead of schedule.
The source also disclosed that contrary to news report that the Managing Director of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, Mr Yusuf Matashi, was removed, the MD is retiring and would not leave until his statutory retirement date of 17th July.
“The replacements are for staff retiring statutory between 1st May and 31st July 2019. Of necessity some of the replacements and the backfills have to be promoted through appointments due to their grades,” she added. In all, 30 staff were affected by both the statutory retirements and redeploymens.
A list of the staff that would statutory retire between 1st May and 31st July, 2019 obtained by this newspaper includes the General Manager, Chad Basin, Aniya Francis Umaru, who is from the north-eastern part of the country and retired on May 6th, 2019; Adewale Solomon Ladenegan, Managing Director, KRPC, who hails from the south-west and retired on May 13th, 2019 and Musa Sulyman Gimba, who is the Group General Manager, NNPC Leadership Academy, who also is from the north-east and retired on May 14th, 2019. Others include Umma Ayuba Musa, who is the General Manager, HR & Admin Services, Duke Oil, from North-west and retired on May 19th, 2019; Emmanuel–Ate Mariagoretti Ndidi, General Manager, Support Services, NGC, from the south-south region and retires on May 30th, 2019; Tsavnande Thaddeaus Atighir, the Executive Director, Operations, from the North-Central; Okor Ovieghara, the General Manager, Upstream/TA to GMD, who hails from the South-South region; Barau Mohammed Kabir, the Managing Director, NGMC, who is from the North-Western region; Dawaki Salihi Abubakar, the General Manager NLNG, LIMS, from the North-West; Ibrahim Aminu Bagudu, the Executive Director, ETSD, NPDC, who is from the North-West and Yusuf Shimingah Matashi, the Managing Director, NPDC, who hails from the North-Western region retires on 17th July, 2019.
“The retirement of these officers will open up gaps in the management of some important Strategic Business Units and Commercial Strategic Units of the Corporation. “Consequently, there is an urgent need to propose competent staff within the Corporation for promotion to fill up the vacancies that emerged,” the documents cited by The Whistler explained.
On the other hand, the names of the 19 staff that were redployed include Anas Mustapha Mohammed, Usman Faruk, All Muhammed Sarki, Osarolube Ezekiel, Ihya Aondoaver Mson, Isah Abubakar Lapal, Umar Hamza Ado, Garba Adamu Kaita, Ossai Uche, Usman Umar, Ehizoje Tunde Ighodaro, Ahmed Mohammed Abdulkabir and Lere Isa Aliyu. Others are: Richard-Obioha Maryrose Nkemegina, Dikko Ahmed, Ibrahim Sarafa Ayobami, Usman Yusuf, Sambo Mansur Sadiq and Buggu Louis Tizhe.