A certain video was going round social media depicting how Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) was shamefully sent out of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) building. This has made the Nigerian Communications Commission release a press statement signed by the Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Henry Nkemadu, which explains the circumstances behind the actions.
In the press statement, NCC explained that there had been an acute shortage of accommodation space at the NCC Head Office and the Board of the Commission thought it wise to decongest the Head Office especially since an Annex Office had just been completed at Mbora, Abuja. The press statement said that in the course of moving into the new office, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) approached the Commission to give them any available free space in the complex.
The Commission made provisions that the 5th floor be made available to them, however, NIDCOM was readily informed that some departments of NCC would still work on the 5th floor, according to the press statement. The press statement explained that “NCC’s offer to house NiDCOM was predicated on the long held position of the NCC that agencies of Government will achieve more through strategic collaboration, partnership, synergy and sharing to the extent allowed by relevant laws”.
However, NCC was still making arrangements for the commissioning of the building by the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari and has not utilized any of the office spaces yet. The press statement explained that security agencies were placed at the entrance of the building to prevent non-members of the NCC from entering the building since the building had not been commissioned yet.
It was included in the statement thus, “therefore, the Honourable Minister of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami could not have sent armed men to drive the staff of the Diaspora Commission out of the Communications and Digital Economy Complex.
“At this time, only NCC Staff were accredited to have access within this premises as required by the security officials. All the properties belonging to the Diaspora Commission are safely warehoused in some of the Offices in the Complex.
This is contrary to the position of the DG of NDC that the removal of her Commission from the building was punitive. This is not the correct position and we agree with her that there are always challenges in every human activity but the unforeseen challenges that arose in this case are not different but require understanding of all concerned”.
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