Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. Peter Jack has been suspended from office indefinitely over what was described as “misconduct” unbecoming of a public officer.
The indefinite suspension which takes immediate effect was contained in a statement signed by Victor Oluwadamilare, the Special Assistant on Media to the Minister of Communications Barrister Shittu Adebayo.
Jack was suspended following the “strength of deluge of petitions” against him for alleged wrongdoings and “subsequent preliminary findings of an Investigative Committee set up by the Ministry,” it said.
The petitions against Mr Jack relates to “illegal employments not approved by the appropriate authority and procurements carried out in direct contraventions of laid down rules and procedure unknown to Civil Service administration in Nigeria,” the statement said.
Oluwadamilare explained that some of the infractions identified by the Investigative Committee made up of three senior Ministry officials include unauthorised illegal recruitment of additional staff totaling 245 within a spate of seven months. According to the committee’s findings, “as at 29th May, 2015, NITDA only had a staff complement of 74.
But from May, 2015 to 31st December, 2015, additional 245 staff were employed in questionable circumstances despite clear instruction from the ministry directing suspension of employment in the agency”.
“These disclosure were deduced from the records provided by Mr Jack, although he was unable to provide concrete information on whose authority he embarked on the massive recruitment and who granted him the authority for officials to be seconded to NITDA from other MDAs”, the statement added.
