NAPTIP board chairman says not aware agency’s DG unqualified

The chairman of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Abubakar Gotomo, said he believes the right thing must have been done by appointing Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim as the agency’s director-general.

When asked if he was aware Mrs Sulaiman-Ibrahim is unqualified for the position she occupies, he said: “I do not know she is not qualified.”

“The government must have made the right decision. The recommendation is made by the honourable minister, and I want to believe that the right thing must have been done,” he told PREMIUM TIMES when asked if he was worried about the director-general not being qualified for the top job.

Upon Mrs Sulaiman-Ibrahim’s appointment as the new director-general, PREMIUM TIMES revealed how her qualification does not match the prerequisite for the job as requested by the law.

The law establishing the anti-trafficking agency mandates whoever would be appointed as its director-general to be from the directorate cadre of the public service.

However, prior to her appointment and subsequent resumption to work, Mrs Sulaiman-Ibrahim was a politician cum businesswoman.

At other times, she was a political appointee to the minister of state on education whose appointment ended upon the expiration of her stint with her former principal.

Despite these revelations, and amidst repeated calls by Nigerians on President Muhammadu Buhari to reverse his decision, the president has refused to reverse the appointment.

Meanwhile, her predecessor, Julie Okah-Donli, was not also qualified for the job before she was axed last December.

This, according to PREMIUM TIMES’ review, follows a pattern peculiar to the Buhari-administration as, under previous administrations, no unqualified person had landed the foremost job in NAPTIP since its establishment in 2003.

As the chief executive officer of the anti-trafficking agency, Mrs Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim acts as the secretary to the agency’s governing board which is made up of eleven members, all of whom are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the supervising minister.

Aside the secretary and the chairman, members of the board, according to the NAPTIP Act, are to include two representatives from civil society organizations involved in matters relating to trafficking in persons; an official in the directorate cadre in each of the ministries of justice, women affairs, labour and productivity, the Nigeria Police Force, National Intelligence Agency, Nigeria Immigration Service, and National Planning Commission.

Other members of the current board include Anne Akwiwu, Idris Mohammed, Dorcas Ajiboye, Adebola Longe, Ntia Thompson, Joshua Akor, Sani Ismail, Wunti Sule, and I. A. Nworgu.