Nigeria Minister suspends IT agency boss over “misconduct”

The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, has suspended the director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Peter Jack, for “misconduct unbecoming of a public officer of his cadre”.

Mr. Jack’s suspension, which takes effect from January 20, 2016, was contained in a statement by the Special Assistant on Media to Mr. Shittu, Victor Oluwadamilare, on Wednesday.

“The indefinite suspension became imperative on the strength of deluge of petitions regarding several alleged wrong-doings in NITDA and subsequent preliminary findings of an investigative committee set up by the Ministry,” the statement said.

According to the statement, some of the infractions identified by the investigative committee made up of three senior officials of the ministry, included illegal recruitment of additional staff totalling 245 within a spate of seven months.

“As at 29th May, 2015, NITDA only had a staff complement of 74.”

“But from May, 2015 to 31st December, 2015, additional 245 staff were employed in questionable circumstances, despite clear instruction from the ministry directing suspension of employment in the agency,” quoting from the committee’s report, the statement said.

The committee also said allegations of financial misdemeanour against Mr. Jack would require a more detailed professional auditing of NITDA’s finances.

Meanwhile, Vincent Olatunji has been named acting DG NITDA.

Mr. Olatunji, until this appointment, was the director of Corporate Strategy and Research in the agency.