Director flays premature retirement from NOTAP

The Director, Technology Acquisition and Research, an arm of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr. Soibi Dede, has said that his boss, Dr. Umar B. Bindir, retired him prematurely, against his own will and without due process. Dede disclosed this in an interview with New Telegraph, saying that Bindir, who was the immediate past Director- General of NOTAP, prevailed on him repeatedly to go on retirement and get a contract offer instead. Dede stated, “He said I should retire and come back to take contract, but I said no, I would not take contract, because the correct thing should be done; I don’t want any contract from you.” He also lamented that he and the family had been having difficult times, since his salary and other benefits had been stopped. He added that he had been surviving on charity from friends and church members. Dede alleged that the director general, who brought his kinsman from RMRDC to succeed himself as NOTAP D-G, secretly forwarded his name to the National Pension Commission (PenCom) for his retirement process. Dede said, “In a letter dated March 13, 2012, Dr. Umar Bindir, DG, NOTAP, had secretly sent my name to the National Pension Commission that Dr. Soibi Dede as employee due for retirement August 2013. On 7th November, 2011, I was served notice of retirement, based on the government policy on eight years tenure limit of directors in public service. “On March 26, 2013, I wrote the Hon. Minister, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology through the Director General of the National Office for Technology Aquisition and Promotion, Dr. Umar Bindir, as required for clarification on my Retirement Tenure as a Research Professional Professional Director with PhD degree in Engineering, servicing in NOTAP. “The director general refused to send it to the minister for clarification, violating the trust vested on him as director general to accord the honourable minister the opportunity to see my application and make decision either for or against me. The decision of the honourable minister if accorded the chance would have ended everything. Bindir did not mince words that he did not want me around in NOTAP.” Dede said that two directors before him had previously been retired; one, he added, was retired having served the ministry for 35 years, while the other retired at about 60 years. He, however, said that the eight years disengagement policy had since been reversed by the ministry. He said: “It was raised in a meeting all the directors and directors-general attended, and they asked Dr. Umar Bindir that they had a director in Raw Materials Research and Development Council, who had stayed in office for eight 8) years as director should they retire him due to the eight years policy? “Prof. Ewa, the then minister, said that all the directors with PhD degrees and who are professionals like myself- I have a PhD in Highway Engineering and Transportation and I am COREN registered engineer-should not be retired on account of the eight years policy. He said such people, we cannot get them easily, we cannot easily replace them.”