Omeri’s appointment to GEJ’s campaign team ‘illegal’

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has cited the “appointment of Mike Omeri”, the director-general of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), into the Jonathan campaign organisation as an act of impunity and violation of the NOA act.

According to the presidential campaign organisation of the party, the action by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) violated Part 2 Section 6 (2) of the National Orientation Agency Act, which prescribed that the director-general of agency should be non-partisan.

It also described the action as unbecoming and designed to compromise and undermine the rules and principles on which the nation’s public service was founded, adding that it jeopardised the neutrality, reputation and position of the agency as an institution of government.

“The APC campaign organisation condemns the inclusion of Omeri, as a member of the media and publicity sub-committee of the PDP presidential campaign organisation,” Garba Shehu, director of media and publicity of the organisation, said in a statement.

“The action is in bad taste and contravenes the public service rules to which all public servants, including the DG of the NOA, is bound. The publication of Omeri’s name in some national dailies with other members of the PDP publicity sub-committee is insensitive, reckless and in poor taste.

“The unprecedented step of co-opting public servants of any cadre into a political party’s campaign structure amounts to making the concerned public officer partisan and is therefore a calculated attempt to pollute the reliability and appeal of the public service.”

It called on the president to remedy this blunder by dropping Omeri from the PDP media and publicity sub-committee without delay, considering that it contravened Part 2 Section 6 (2) of the rules and regulations for the appointment of the DG of NOA which stated, inter alia that the DG of the agency shall be non-partisan.

“In this election season, the helmsman of the NOA, by the law establishing it, should be in the forefront of the campaign for peaceful and credible election and not to be seen to be collaborating with the ruling PDP,” Garba added.