17 perm secs in Adamawa protest against appointment of HoS

About 17 permanent secretaries in Adamawa State have threatened to quit the civil service over Governor Mohammed Bindow’s choice of Head of Service.

They said the governor’s appointment of Dr. Amos Edgar as Head of Service, was a gross abuse of civil service rules and laws.

Spokesman of the aggrieved permanent secretaries said they were angered by the fact that Edgar is junior to all of them.

He told The Guardian on condition of anonymity yesterday in Yola, that the governor did not only abuse the rules of the state civil service, but also showed total disregard for seniority in civil service.

Edgar, who was appointed permanent secretary in December 2017, was yesterday sworn in as head of service to replace Dr. Louis Mandama, who is now special adviser to the governor on civil service matters.

According to him, when seniority in civil service is grossly abused, governance would suffer, as it would breed disrespect to directives.

“How do you expect me to take orders or directives from Edgar, who has spent less than 10 months as permanent secretary?”

He said he has been a permanent secretary for eight years, adding: “We are the engine room of the government.”

Bindow had said at the inauguration that it took him seven months to arrive at the choice of Edgar, even though he was appointed only last year as a permanent secretary.