Recruitment Scandal Rocks National Veterinary Research Institute Vom, Jos, Group Accuses Executive Director of Lopsided Appointment

Yakubu Busari

A group under the aegis of Renaissance Vanguard and Justice Watch Group of Nigeria, working NVRI have petitioned the office of the Secretary to the Government of Federation and the Federal Character Commission to investigate an alleged continued act of lopsided appointments at the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI).

The petitions emanated from two separate groups and were made available to newsmen in Jos.

Two  offices and acknowledged and submitted their letters on the 21st of August noted that out of the 953 personnel currently working in the institute, states like Sokoto, Bayelsa and Kebbi can only boast of one personnel each while Zamfara and the FCT have none.

They explained that while Plateau State has the largest number of 468 personnel due to its strategic position as the host community, other states like Benue have 50, Kaduna 47, Kogi 45, Oyo 30 and Anambra 26 respectively.

The separate letters expressed concern that despite this, the institute plans to recruit an additional 150 personnel adding that, “some selected applicants have already been penciled down from a particular geopolitical zone of the country that have already over bloated their quotas.”

It noted that the trend had continued unabated in the last 15 years adding that, “the NVRI has disregard the federal government directives in the filling of existing staff vacancies under the guise of replacement of personnel without compliance to extent regulations such as adherence to federal character principle policy of equitable distribution across the federation, placement of recruitment adverts in national dailies for all interested applicants to apply within the stipulated six weeks period and none participation of the representative of federal civil service commission, federal character commission and the supervising ministry.”

When contacted, the Executive Director of the Institute, Dr. David Shamaki in a text message told journalists that in the last two years, the NVRI has not had any employment since he took over as ED.

He however said the institute will be willing to reply any petition from the Federal Character Commission and the office of the SGF as soon as it receives it.