Organised labour under the auspices of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has dispelled the speculations that its property housing the national secretariat in Lagos and the ultra-modern complex under construction at Mabushi area in Abuja have been sold by the current leadership of the association.
Alade Bashir Lawal, the secretary-general of the association in a statement issued in Lagos on Friday, regretted that some disgruntled members of the union who engaged in anti-union activities and were expelled by the national executive council (NEC) of the association, resorted to be propagating lies to anti-graft agencies and members of the public to impugn the reputation of the national leadership of ASCSN.
“All the documents in respect of the union’s property in Lagos and Abuja which were allegedly taken over by individuals and sold are very much intact and being kept safely.
“It is really unfortunate that those who are deliberately spreading falsehood are still walking in the streets as free citizens,” the union stated.
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According to the ASCSN, when the operatives of some of the agencies petitioned visited the site of the new national secretariat being constructed in Abuja, they were surprised that the secretariat complex consisting of a conference centre, guest house, offices and shopping malls which is now at the 5th floor, was being built through internally generated revenue.
On the alleged N14 billion fraud in the association, the ASCSN secretary-general asked; “What is the total check-off dues of the union since it was registered in 1981 that such huge amount has been embezzled in the last 10 years?”
“How can it be that a trade union such as the ASCSN with 36 states branches, 35 chapters, and more than 1,000 units in ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) at the federal and state levels which organises meetings, seminars, training for its members at home and abroad, pay entitlements to its teeming members and officers be accused of corruption?
“It must be emphasised that the association renders annual returns of its account to the Registrar of Trade Unions under the auspices of the federal ministry of labour and employment every year as stipulated by the Trade Union Acts,” the union noted.
The union alleged that one Bola-Audu Innocent, a former national president of the association “who had been dragged to court by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for engaging in alleged cases of human trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable persons, had decided to wage war against the union, cooking up lies against the leadership of the Association and forwarding such falsehood to the anti-graft agencies.”
