THE Nigeria Civil Service Union (NCSU) may any moment from now go after Comrade Lawrence Amaechi by reporting him to the relevant security agencies for absconding with an official car attached to him when he served as President of the union, a position which two courts of record, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria and the Court of Appeal, have declared that he illegally occupied.
National Record gathered from a reliable principal staff of the union that though NCSU’s General Secretary, Comrade Bomoi Mohammed Ibraheem, had in March rewritten a polite letter requesting Comrade Amaechi to ‘release’ the union’s Toyota Hilux in his possession for official use by the Public Trustee before Monday, April 4, 2022, Comrade Amaechi had up to neither returned the vehicle nor responded to the request.
The source noted that to the General Secretary’s letter formally informed Comrade Amaechi of the National Industrial Court’s reappointment of a Public Trustee to oversee the affairs of NCSU towards organising its National Delegates’ Conference (NDC) to usher in a new national leadership for the union.
“I can authoritatively tell you that our General Secretary wrote to Comrade Amaechi a letter which I think is very polite, and informed him of NIC’s reappointment of a Public Trustee and requesting that after interacting with the Public Trustee, the union would wish to request that the its Toyota Hilux in his [Amaechi’s] possession be released for use by the Public Trustee within the period and will appreciate if it can be released before Monday, 4th April, 2022.
“As we speak [Wednesday, April 13, 2022], Comrade Amaechi has, to the best of my knowledge, neither returned the Hilux nor responded to the General Secretary. There is a feeling among staff that if the former president fails to do the needful, the matter might be handed over to the security agencies soon to do anything possible within the law to retrieve the vehicle and possibly press charges against him,” the source said.
National Record gathered that the reason for a sterner action by the new leadership in the union is based on the notion that in the eyes of the law, Comrade Amaechi was never a president of the union and therefore ought not to be in possession of the union’s property.
Our correspondent also gathered that there is an on-going momentum and agitation angling to sue Comrade Amaechi and his colleagues to refund all salaries and allowances they took while they illegally held on to their positions.
All efforts to reach the Public Trustee to seek his views on the matter failed as his number was said not to be available.
When contacted and asked if Comrade Amaechi has responded to his letter, the General Secretary, Comrade Ibraheem, said he thinks that the Public Trustee is better placed to answer my question.
“I think the [Public] Trustee should answer that question; he was the one that directed me to write.” When told that since the letter was signed by him and any response would naturally be routed through him; the General Secretary said: “Yes, but it was the Trustee that directed me, so I think he is the one to answer that. I beg, I take God beg you, ask the Trustee. I know that he is the one that gave you the letter, I didn’t give you the letter, I sent it to his WhatsApp; he gave you so talk to him. Me, I am here as the custodian of the union and not to be following anybody; so it is only the Trustee that can answer that one, but if it is anything about the union I can answer.”
When this reporter protested that he had called the Public Trustee and his mobile phone was not available and that the issue in question is also a union affair, especially as the letter was not signed by the Public Trustee but by him as General Secretary, Comrade Ibraheem still insisted on not speaking on the matter since, as according to him, he did not make the letter public, and that National Record can go ahead and publish anything it wanted.
