REED alleges victimisation of candidates vying for CEO/ Principal Petroleum Training Institute

Members of the Right Education Empowerment and Development Centre (REED), a non-governmental organisation in Delta State, have alleged plot to disenfranchise some candidates vying for the position of CEO/Principal at the Petroleum Training Institute, (PTI), Effurun-Warri.

REED wrote to the chairman of the Federal Character Commission to notify him of the alleged injustice being carried out by the current management board of the PTI.

According to the group, mass protests might follow if justice, equity and fairness were not considered in the appointment process for a new CEO/Principal for the institution.

Sources close to the institute alleged that the PTI board recently increased the age limit for candidates aspiring to become the institute’s Chief Executive Officer from 40 to 50 years as contained in the advertisement for appointment into office as published in the Vanguard newspaper of December 16, 2020.

The REED also alleged that the move was introduced to disqualify some candidates who were not yet 50.

Gentechnews gathered that by implication, anyone who is not up to 50 years of age as at December 2019 is not qualified for appointment into the office of the institute’s CEO/Principal.

The group also stated in the letter, that the board increased the age limit to favour the current Principal, Sunny Iyuke, because they want him back for a second term despite an alleged poor performance in office, maladministration, inefficiency and corruption.

The group’s statement issued read, “In 2015, when the governing board made a similar advertisement for appointment into the same office, the age limit was put at 55 and below.

REED stated that this time round, the latest adjustment made in the age limit is a deliberate tactic intended to “disenfranchise certain competent individuals with the requisite academic qualifications and popularity to become the next Principal of the institution.”