The Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Barrister Julie Okah-Donli, has been accused of lopsided recruitment of staff into the agency as well as deliberate victimisation of Northern Muslims since her appointment.
In a petition against the DG, addressed to the Attorney General of the Federation, a copy of which was obtained by Vigil360, Okah-Donli was accused of systematic segregation against staff of Northern extraction with an alleged 70% of the current staff composition coming from a section of the country.
The petition dated December 19, 2017 and signed by one Aminu Umar, on behalf of a certain Concern Citizens for Good Governance, also demanded the removal of the DG.
“The Director General is promoting an agenda of ethnic patronage and domination in the Agency in constituting committees, taskforces and in the overall structure of teh agency.
“Out of the 302 staff of the agency domiciled at the NAPTIP headquarters Abuja, including Directors and Heads of Units, less than 20 are from both North-West and North East,” the petition alleged.
The NAPTIP DG was also accused of deliberately scheduling the agency’s senior staff promotion examination on a Friday, “in order to spite nad deny Muslim officers their rights to worship in congregation.”
“The examinations were conducted between 1:00PM – 3:00PM on Friday 3rd November, 2017, an action that denied all Muslim faithful the opportunity to observe obligatory Friday prayer in congregation,” it was further claimed.
Vigil360 sources reveal that although the DG is aware of some of the allegations levelled against her, she has remained indifferent on the grounds that they are unsubstantiated.
The NAPTIP boss had upon resumption, replaced Hajara Lami-Shehu, who was acting Head, Press and Public Relations of the agency with Josiah Emerole among other top management changes which some staff considered unfavourable to Northern colleagues.
The office of the Attorney General of the Federation which confirmed receipt of the letter, could not make further comments on the matter.Okah-Donli was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari on April 13, 2017 and resumed office on August 1.
