Group Petitions IGP Over Senior Civil Servants’Crisis

The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), has appealed to the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, to intervene in the crisis rocking the association.
The association, in a petition issued by its National Convener, Comrade Andrew Emelieze, and made available to newsmen, titled, “Attempt to breach Public Peace, Disregard to Court Orders and the illegal activities of Mr Alade Bashir Lawal to brewing crisis in ASCSN, thus, the breach of Public Peace in Nigeria”, pleaded for a quick intervention to ensure the respect for the rule of law.
Emelieze explained that despite the intervention of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, by trying to mediate and broker peace, the Secretary-General of the union, Comrade Bashir Lawal, still went ahead to convene a meeting of ASCSN in disregard to an existing court order restraining the union from such activities.
He observed that the issues at stake included the indiscriminate sack/retrenchment of close to 20 union staff in the month of June alone and the withholding of the severance benefits of retrenched staff based on Lawal’s insistence that the sacked workers must sign an illegal document before they are paid off.
Emeliezelisted other issues as the purported refusal of Lawal to retire when he turned 60 years in line with industrial relations practice of equating the conditions of service of workers (public servants) with that of the staff of the union that represents the workers.
He added that such that members are demanding the refund of all salaries and allowances earned by Lawal to the union since he turned 60.
The petition explained, “The unconstitutional suspension of our duly elected President, Comrade Bola Audu and the subsequent expulsion of the President from the union without the approval of the Congress and the national delegates that voted the President to power.”
The petition said the Congress rejects the ignoble and unholy agreement of the August 17 meetings convoked in Ikeja Airport Hotel as null and void and a waste of union resources.
The petition added that consequently, their members shall “show resistance to the unacceptable impositions of Lawal in his attempt to destabilize our workers union. We count on your quick interventions to ensuring the respect for the rule of law.”