Daily Trust

NSCDC staff lament lack of promotion

- By Joshua Odeyemi

Some personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have cried out over what they describe as lack of the progressio­n in the service.

One of the aggrieved personnel, who spoke to Daily Trust in Abuja, said since their enlistment in 2005 with the rank of Chief Corps Assistant (CCA), they have remained on Grade Level 07 ever since.

He said many of them have been on the same salary grade level for upward of 10 years - with neither promotion nor transfer - while many others are going into retirement without promotion.

He said some of them who were told to go to school, were forced to make payment to collect the form, while some certificat­es presented by some of them were not recognized. Furthermor­e, he said the rank of CCA was recognized only by NSCDC.

He said some of the aggrieved staff have written to officially inform the agency of the discrepanc­ies but nothing has been done about it. He therefore called on President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene.

Responding to the allegation­s, spokesman of NSCDC Emmanuel Okeh said those said to be aggrieved were not personnel of the corps, stressing that it personnel know its rules.

“If they are personnel then, they should know that the process of moving from one rank to another is from the board and not the service.

“The rank of CCA is obtainable in all the services in the interior ministry i.e. Immigratio­n, Prisons, Fire Service and NSCDC. For the person to say it’s only in NSCDC shows he is not informed or was being malicious.

“The CCA is the final level for those with School Certificat­e and Trade Test, except those that acquire additional qualificat­ion such as ND, NCE or B.Sc which will enable them to be converted from the CCA to either inspectora­te or superinten­dent cadre.”

Okeh stressed that some of them, who have gone to school, only got University Diploma, stressing that “university diploma is not an academic qualificat­ion that can earn you promotion and conversion.”

He added that until the appropriat­e certificat­es were presented for conversion, they will remain on the CCA till retirement.

“They have been encouraged to write for study leave but some felt it’s not important and when they see their mates, who took the pains to embark on further studies being elevated, then they start complainin­g,” Okeh stressed.

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