NIDCOM lists items allegedly ‘carted away’ by communications minister

Kayode Oyero

The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission has released a list of items allegedly “carted away” by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, after he allegedly ejected workers of the Commission from the fifth floor of Nigerian Communications Commission Complex in Abuja.

The PUNCH reports that the minister and NIDCOM Chairman, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, on Sunday, traded words on Twitter over the forced eviction of NIDCOM staff from the office given to them by the NCC.

Dabiri-Erewa had accused the minister of ordering armed men to chase away her workers from their office.

“In one year, we don’t even have an office. The office we got, given to us by NCC, we were actually driven away by the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr Isa Pantami. Within two days he drove us out with guns and what happened? The place was given to us by NCC.

“You know we all help each other, NCC as an agency of government, said there is a place you can use to settle in. And just as we settled in, I was in Ethiopia when I got a call. I thought that it was a joke. I came back from Ethiopia on Thursday, this happened on Tuesday, by Friday when I went to the office, guns, armed men had taken over the place,” the former House of Reps member said.

Pantami, however, countered the accusations describing it as “lies”.

“….The owner of the building @NgComCommission has faulted her lies on their social media platforms. The minister has never given that directive to any gunman. We need to be very objective in reporting. I have never sent any gunmen there, & I have no one,” he wrote.

But the NIDCOM boss later posted a video of the stranded workers who were being addressed to stay calm after the forced eviction.

In a statement on Sunday, NIDCOM Head of Media and Public Relations, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, said, “For the avoidance of doubt, the following is the list of some of the items which NiDCOM believes have been carted away:

“Two units of single face data ports, 24 port patch panel, 1 Mikrotik RB 750G router, 1 Mikrotik cloud router switch. 2 Headsets with microphones, 2 Digital PABX, 1 4u Server racks, Patch cables, 3 UPS, 1 HP desk jet 1012 all in one printer, 1 HP desk jet all in one printer (brand-new with the Carton).

“1 Mercury UPS (brand-new with the Carton), 1 Ellington extension cable (brand-new), 2 3meter extension boxes, Data Antenna, 7 HP All in one desktop, Camera tripod, Cannon 700 digital camera, Xenon laptop, 144 Work stations & 144 Swivel office chairs.

“2 Meter mini conference table, 6 Conference table chairs, 3 Meter executive office furniture set, 1 Executive sofa set, 4 Executive office furniture set, 12 Executive office visitors’ chairs, 5 4-seater work stations, 2 Reclineable executive chairs, 4 Ergonomic executive office chairs with lumbar support, Technology Transfer & Innovation department files and documents.

“Legal department files and documents, Accounts department files and documents, Secretary to the Commission’s office entire files and documents, Admin department entire files and documents, Diaspora relations department entire files and documents

“Media department entire files and documents, Roll up banners, Staff personal belonging such as printers, UPS, extension cables, stationeries (cartons of Chamex papers, staplers, pins, notice board) files & documents & toiletries etc.”