Criticisms Trail DPR’s Moves to Flout President’s Directive to Recall Illegally Retired Directors

Also, sources within the agency hinted that a ‘cabal’ in the industry has vowed to resist their return to the DPR despite that the Presidency, through the Head of Service had directed their immediate recall after they were cleared of the allegations against them by the leadership of DPR.

Describing the action of the DPR Director and the cabal as an “an act of insubordination and a flagrant disregard to constituted authorities”, the sources familiar with the matter, argued that it was unfair to retire the directors when they were not found wanting in their jobs and had no criminal records prior to their unlawful removal from office just because you want to replace them with your loyalists”.

They dismissed the allegations of fraud, dishonesty and divulging official secret and classified documents levelled against the affected directors as untrue, insisting they were concocted lies by the authorities to achieve their selfish goals.

“We even read in the dailies that since the offices occupied by the retired directors have now been occupied by others who have moved up the ladder, recalling them could cause crisis in the system. Again this is false.This is not the first time workers or even political appointees that were wrongfully retired are called back. Even in the police and military settings, officers retired based on allegations of wrong doings are often recalled when they were cleared. What this resistance being put by the DPR means is that the powers that be retired those directors prematurely and quickly used their loyalists as replacement. This illegality does not augur well for the oil industry and should be reversed forthwith”, said a top oil industry expert, who craved anonymity.