Workers raise alarm over midnight removal of official documents in PRODA

Some staff of the Projects Development Institute (PRODA), Enugu, have raised alarm over alleged haul away of official files.

The alert came amid petitions at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other Offences Commission (ICPC) and Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).

Sources in the federal agency informed journalists that they were tipped off by security personnel about suspicious movement of some individuals.

This occurred between Friday night and Sunday morning within the agency’s administrative complex housing the office of the embattled Director-General/Chief Executive Officer (DG/CEO) of PRODA, Dr. Charles Agulanna.
 

The concerned workers implored the Federal Government to take urgent and appropriate measures to secure documents and the property.

They alleged that the action might not be unconnected to the outcome of the recent Governing Board meeting.

The Board had deliberated on the query it served the DG/CEO earlier, but its decisions remained unknown.

A source hinted that the mood around the agency suggests that the Board might have taken “an unfavourable decision against the DG.”

Recently, a faction of Academic Staff Union of Research Institutes (ASURI), backed by a top PRODA official, travelled to Abuja from Enugu to protest at the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, despite interstate travel restrictions.

Agulanna told journalists on the phone that the matter was “strange” and that no one had the right to remove official files.

When informed that the person whistleblowers were suspecting coordinated the removal of the files was his brother, a PRODA staff, the DG replied: “This is very, very strange, nobody has a right to even touch any file without having to pass through the registry”.

“So anybody saying anything like this must just have something else behind, must have a hidden agenda. That’s what I believe. How can somebody say that somebody who has no way of touching any file is taking fine, I don’t understand it.”

On the possibility of the act having any link with a recent board meeting where he was allegedly indicted, Agulanna said: “No, no, no. The fact should be made clearer than what you’re presenting now because I know the process of taking a file, not just what you give to anybody.”