FG queries Odimegwu over census outburst

Secretary to the Government of the Federation Senator Anyim Pius Anyim queried the chairman on Monday because of his “unguarded utterances” and asked him to reply within 48 hours, an official told Daily Trust.The query follows a petition by 24 national commissioners in the agency, dated August 21, in which they urged President Goodluck Jonathan […]

Secretary to the Government of the Federation Senator Anyim Pius Anyim queried the chairman on Monday because of his “unguarded utterances” and asked him to reply within 48 hours, an official told Daily Trust.
The query follows a petition by 24 national commissioners in the agency, dated August 21, in which they urged President Goodluck Jonathan to fire Odimegwu because of the census outburst and other allegations.
Since he assumed office in June 2012, Odimegwu had launched a strident campaign to discredit previous censuses, particularly the one held in 2006 during the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Last week, the population chief said the 2006 census figures were mostly cooked up and the process was tainted by large-scale corruption.
His predecessor Samu’ila Danko Makama who conducted that census responded, saying Odimewgu was simply being mischievous, or was exhibiting ignorance. He said the census results were okayed by the National Counciul of States and international donor agencies.
On Friday, Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso urged President Jonathan to sack Odimegwu stressing that his appointment, in the first place, was a mistake.
An official in Anyim’s office said the query given to the population chief asked him to “explain why he has been making statements capable of overheating the system.”
The official said he did not know if Odimegwu had responded to the query or not, but he has up to today to do that.
Daily Trust reports that apart from his statements on previous censuses, Odimegwu has lost the confidence of 24 of the 36 commissioners who accuse him of side-lining them and operating through a clique.
It emerged yesterday that the 24 commissioners had jointly sent a petition to President Jonathan, asking him to fire Odimegwu to stop him from plunging the “nation into an avoidable darkness.”
The commissioners said they passed a vote of no-confidence in the chairman, as his “conduct has precipitated the present seeming anarchy pervading the commission and generated the persisting unhealthy national debate on past census results in this country.”
“The basis for continued confidence in the chairman, Eze Festus Odimegwu has been destroyed irretrievably. It is in the national interest that the chairmanship of a sensitive commission such as the National Population Commission be assigned to a more predictable and temperate person,” the petition said.
The commissioners said his “unguarded” statements on previous censuses since 1816 could provoke ethnic and religious discontent among Nigerians.
Raising issues on the chairman’s leadership, the petition said he had failed to summon the usual commission’s meetings for upward of three months. Odimewgu had denied this specific allegation in a text message to Daily Trust last week.
The commissioners said, “The chairman has without prior knowledge and or approval of the commission appointed three Acting Directors to head substantive departments in total disregard of extant laws on seniority.
“He has appointed three Advisers/Assistants from the private sector without recourse to the commission and whom he has issued the commission’s identity cards and entrusted them with official documents of the commission.”
They said for the first time in history the commission is witnessing the presence of two acting Directors General “as a result of Eze Festu’s Odimegwu’s gross violation of due process.”
Daily Trust reported earlier that Odimegwu had compelled the former Acting DG Alhaji Halilu Pai to proceed on terminal leave in defiance of a clarification from the SGF and the office of the Head of Service that Pai was free to remain in office until August 1 when he would retire.
The chairman appointed Dr Tayo Oyetunji, and in the ensuing confusion, Pai and Dr Tayo each introduced himself as Acting DG of the NPC on two occasions, at the World Populations Day activities and during the visit of the UNFPA to the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
Meanwhile NPC headquarters was thrown into confusion in the early hours of yesterday as news filtered in of FGF’s query to Odimegwu.
Daily Trust could not speak with the chairman, but when our reporter contacted the commissioner representing Ogun State who is also the chairman, Public Affairs Committee, Mrs Oluseyi Aderinokun-Olusanya, she said was not aware of the query “probably because I’m out of the country.”
The commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Mr Altine, was said to be sick and unavailable for comment.