Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered for a reversal of the dismissal of the managing director of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company Limited (NBET) Marilyn Amobi by power minister Sale Mamman.
Mamman in December 2019 asked Amobi to step down with immediate effect to “restore sanity” to the management of the agency.
The power boss also directed the constitution of a 5-man committee to investigate allegations of mismanagement against the NBET boss.
But a memo by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation ordered her reinstatement.
Prior to this, Mamman had directed Nnaemeka Ewelukwa, a general manager in NBET to assume office as acting managing director of the agency.
Ewelukwa has been told to vacate the position for Amobi.
Amobi’s reinstatement was not the first time Buhari will override the orders of the minister.
On Tuesday, December 7, Buhari reversed the suspension of the managing director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) Damilola Ogunbiyi ordered by same power minister.
Before her suspension, Ogunbiyi had resigned from the position to take up a job as the United Nations special representative for sustainable energy and CEO of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll). Her resignation letter was not acknowledged by the minister.
But Buhari reversed the suspension and acknowledged her resignation to allow her begin work with the UN.
In the midst of the rumoured power-tussle between the minister and agency heads under the ministry, NBET had been moved from the ministry of power to the ministry of finance. Neither the president nor the minister gave any reasons for the movement.
Ogunbiyi and Amobi’s ordeals with the power minister have heightened persistent allegations of witch-hunt against Southerners by a ‘cabal’ within the government.
