Sacked Whistle Blower Reinstated By Foreign Ministry

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BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – The Africa Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), a civil society organisation has expressed delight at the re-instatement of a sacked whistle blower at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ntia Thompson.

Thompson, an Assistant Director in the Servicom Unit of the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA), was first suspended on December 19, 2016, and later wrongfully disengaged from service on February 23, 2017, for exposing fraud to the tune of $229,000 and N800,000 allegedly committed by Mr. Mohammaed Kachallah, Director-General of DTCA.

The case is currently being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

AFRICMIL, which is working on building support for the whistle-blower policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria, said that as frontline stakeholders in the whistleblower policy, it is happy about Ntia’s reinstatement saying the way government treats cases of this nature would give an idea of how seriously whistle-blowing should be taken as an anti-corruption policy of government.

Coordinator of AFRICMIL, Mr. Chido Onumah noted that Thompson’s case is a triumph of good over evil and it gives hope that the nation is moving in the right direction on the whistle blower policy.

AFRICMIL commended the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Foreign of Affairs for their crucial roles in ensuring that the whistleblower was called back to work without further delay.

It reminded the government that in much the same way Thompson was persecuted, two whistleblowers, Aaron Kaase of the Police Service Commission (PSC) and Murtala Ibrahim of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), are concrete examples of victims of the intense tyranny of their bosses.

According to Onumah; “Kaase has been on suspension without pay since May 21, 2016, while Ibrahim was dismissed outright.”

AFRICMIL therefore called on the relevant agencies of government and the supervising minister of the institutions to urgently take necessary steps to return the affected workers to their offices and investigate the misconduct they reported.

It stressed that in addition to the laudable act of returning whistleblowers back to office, investigating bodies, where cases have been reported, need to speed up the process of investigation and ensure that those indicted are made to face the full wrath of the law.

“While it is ethically correct to recall a dismissed whistle-blower, it is also morally right that action is taken on the reported wrongdoing in a just manner. Only through that way can the confidence of potential whistle-blowers be sustained.

“We urged the Federal Ministry of Finance, the administrator of the whistle-blower policy, to promptly work out firm guidelines for the safety and protection of whistle-blowers, pending the passage of the whistle-blower protection bill by the National Assembly,” Orumah insisted.

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