- Petition Presidency, Senate and DSS
Some Kogi indigenes working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thursday, kicked against the ambassadorial nomination of Mrs Regina Ingekem Ocheni, in a petition written to the Presidency, Senate, and Department of State Security, DSS, to drop her as nominee from Kogi State over indigeneship.
The petition signed was by one Usman Abubakar on behalf of other petitioners who raised the concern.
According to the petitioners who alleged that the ambassadorial nominee was not from Kogi State, but married to an Igala man from Kogi State while she is from Cross River State as her state of origin, based on established procedures and requirements for Foreign Service appointments which she does not meet the condition.
The petition reads in part, “The reason is obvious as it will show her local government and state of origin which is contrary to what she is claiming to be from Kogi State.
“Civil service rules say every married woman must claim her state of origin. Mrs. Ocheni is a native of Cross River State but married to an Igala man. By the service wide extant regulations issued by the Federal Character Commission, an officer is prohibited from claiming the state of her spouse for the purpose of any appointment.”
The petitioners also alleged that she (Ocheni) does not have first degree as requirement to be an ambassadorial nominee from Kogi State, because she has Higher National Diploma, HND, as qualification that does not meet the requirement for the position she is being nominated for.
“She possesses HND in Secretariat Studies which is not recognized as a qualification for the job. At the time she joined the civil service, the law harmonizing HND and first degree had not been passed and accented to,” the petition added.
Credit: Vanguard
