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Eweluka is to succeed Marilyn Amobi, as substantive Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, while the former MD is to handover and proceed on his her terminal leave with immediate effect.

An alleged leakage of official documents concerning the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) at the Presidency is generating controversy after some members of the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) said top government officials were plotting the reinstatement of the ousted managing director of the company.

The association said in a statement on Thursday that the former managing director, Mr. Usman Gur Mohammed, had been meeting prominent citizens to solicit for return to his former post.

“Two of such prominent people are the president of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, and the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed. We learnt with doubt that the AfDB president wrote the president tying loans to the appointment of an individual, Usman Mohammed.

“On the side of the minister (Zainab Ahmed), she was said to have agreed that the loan was needed even with an appointment tied to it. What an irrational proposition, if true,” said a statement issued by the association’s General Secretary, Umar Dubagari.

Our correspondent gathered that a section of the national level of the association is led by Chris Okonkwo, a member of the management staff of TCN whom the ousted managing director had removed from office after allegedly ending his four-year posting from the Ministry of Power to TCN.

The issue had raised tension at TCN shortly before Mohammed was summarily removed by the Minister of Power, Engineer Sale Mamman, after he got an approval from President Muhammadu Buhari through a series of correspondents from the president’s Chief of Staff.

On how the union got the information on which their statement was based, it was learnt from multiple sources that the Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, had forwarded the letter of the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning to President Muhammadu Buhari with the attached letter of the president of AfDB to Engr. Mamman for his comment.

The documents, which were termed to be classified and awaited presidential action, may have been leaked in that process to the section of the union led by Okonkwo.

A top official in the power sector said: “The minister finding any fault with the TCN head, should have in the first instance, issued him a query or asked him to step down for a panel of enquiry as guided by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) who is empowered to issue appointment and dismissal letters to government appointees.

“The minister only acted through a press release without recourse to the SGF. As we speak, no letter has been given to the acting MD of TCN and his management team, or a dismissal letter to the ousted MD, nearly three weeks after,” the official explained. “The minister also knows that it was the federal government that had requested that Mohammed come to TCN on secondment from AfDB, and as such AfDB reserves the right to ask questions if that official on such critical assignment in Nigeria is summarily removed from office. This is also a spite on the presidency’s request for the official from the bank and the formal approval for his secondment to TCN by AfDB.”

The Sokoto State Taskforce Committee on COVID-19 has discharged all 101 isolated coronavirus patients in the state and recorded 14 deaths. The Committee’s Chairman, Dr Ali Inname, who disclosed this at a news conference in Sokoto said that as of Friday there was no patient at the isolation centre in the state.

COVID-19 : Expert warns against overdose of vitamin C What we miss about pre- COVID-19 life Inname added that the index case was recorded on April 19, in the state, with 731 samples collected, while 655 contacts completed the 14 days of follow up. The chairman who is also the state’s Commissioner for Health, explained that the committee received 839 alerts from across the state and that all of them were investigated.

He said that the patients were from eight local government areas of the state. According to him, men constituted 85 per cent of the patient population. He said that the committee’s activities would continue as many test results were still pending.

He added that testing of suspected patients would continue, stressing that any positive person detected would be taken to the isolation centre. In name, therefore, urged people to continue to patronise hospitals as service delivery had fully resumed in recognition of the fact that access to healthcare had declined due to the pandemic.

The commissioner also advised people to abide by the safety guidelines of wearing face masks, constant washing of hands with soap, and using sanitisers as well as observing physical distance, among others. (NAN)