Senior civil servants in 19 northern states have condemned an alleged “invasion” of their Lagos national secretariat by an “expelled” former president of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Bola-Audu Innocent.
According to a statement signed by Shehu Mohammed, chairman, and Anthonia Pamson, secretary respectively, of the Northern Forum of ASCSN, Innocent, in the company of some retired staff and suspected hoodlums, invaded the Lagos national secretariat on Monday, August 22, 2022.
The Forum, in the statement, regretted that rather than exhausting the court processes he initiated against the association bordering on his expulsion, “Bola-Audu has elected to resort to thuggery and extra-judicial means to return to power.”
They said, “Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria is made up of the cream of educated, knowledgeable, and civilised members in the public services of the federal and 36 state governments that cherish due process and decorum in managing the affairs of the union.
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“If Bola-Audu believes in deploying violence as a strategy to lead the association, who are those senior civil servants that will embrace his gangsterism and brigandage as tools for trade union practices in this 21st century.”
The Forum explained that the former president was made to step aside in March 2021 by the National Executive Council (NEC) of the association after he was arrested in Abuja by the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for alleged trafficking in persons and exploitation of vulnerable persons,” the Forum alleged.
According to the labour leaders, while the leadership of the association was exploring informal channels to see how he could be given soft-landing by the authorities, Bola-Audu invaded the national secretariat annex of the union in Abuja and indulged in all manner of constitutional breaches forcing the association to expel him from the union in August 2021.
The labour leaders emphasised that Bola-Audu and his misguided cohorts would be held solely responsible if any staff of the union at the national secretariat in Lagos and Abuja was harmed in any way.
They warned the ex-president to steer clear of the national secretariat of the association in Lagos and Abuja so that the union could continue to pursue the welfare of its teeming members as it had been doing over the decades.
The ASCSN Northern Forum, therefore, also passed a vote of confidence on the national president of the association, Tommy Etim Okon, and the secretary-general, Alade Bashir Lawal, and urged them to remain steadfast and continue to defend the union.
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