‘NEMA probe politically motivated’

The Arewa Youth Integrity Forum has described the House of Representatives probe of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA and its Director General, Engr. Mustapha Maihaja, as politically motivated.

The group said in a press conference in Kaduna yesterday that the report of the committee not only veered from the issues placed before it but also sought to exhume allegations made on past chief executives of the agency as new, giving the impression that they had to do with the current director general.

Spokesman of the group, Comrade Adamu Adamu, said the committee was expected to do a thorough job and come out with objective and unbiased recommendations for the smooth operation of the agency but fell short of expectations.

“What we have seen at the end of the exercise and after so much blowing of hot air is far from what we expect from a parliamentary probe,” he said.

The group said to the best of its knowledge, NEMA had improved tremendously and had been discharging its duties effectively and efficiently since the current administration led by Engr. Mustapha Maihaja. It added that when some states were ravaged by flood in 2016 and 2017, NEMA ensured that victims were quickly identified and assisted within the shortest possible time.

The Arewa group said for a parliament that seeks the greater good of Nigeria and its citizens, there are agencies of government which due to the sensitive nature of their schedules should be spared the chicaneries of politics.

On the recommended reinstatement of six suspended staff of NEMA by its management, the group said those exonerated by the committee were under investigation by the EFCC and the board of NEMA under Vice President Yemi Osinbajo did nothing wrong in suspending those persons for the continuation of the investigation.

The group said there is therefore no basis for the House committee to call for the sack of the NEMA DG as investigations into the matter were still on going and some of the issues were carried over from the previous administration at NEMA.

From left: President, African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina; former DG, PENCOM, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu; and Executive Director, Nigerian Export Promotion Commission, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, at the African Investment Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa, recently.