From Rejoice Ojodubiun, Lokoja.
Barely 72 hours after she was appointed as Kogi State Head of Service, Mrs. Hassana Lawal, has been retired on the orders of the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
Government statement issued in Lokoja on Friday named Mrs. Deborah Ogunmola as the new substantive Head of Service.
Mrs. Lawal, who still has 15 months to retire from service had her acting appointment as HoS confirmed on 23 August, 2017.
No reason was given for her sack, but sources inside government suggested that the governor took the decision to improve his chances for re-election as the appointment of the new HoS could attract minority support votes in addition to other areas of the state he has calculated he could win votes from.
They hinged their argument on the hope raised in Bassa LGA for the recognition some indigenes of the area have enjoyed in Yahaya Bello’s appointments.
But another insider hinted that the action of the Governor had been long in coming given the “courageous and no-nonsense stance she had maintained against the governor’s decisions on the state civil service and other state matters.”I fear that with her removal the civil service is heading for doom because what I suspect is that the governor is looking for a compliant civil servant that would accept his dictates without question.”
As a way of pacifying the Ebira ethnic group the governor has reappointed Mrs. Lawal who hails from Okene LGA as Special Adviser, Civil Service and Labour Matters.
The new HoS who is to assume duty on 28 August 2017, hails from Ogori-Magongo LGA and was suspended as Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Works &Housing in March 2015 by the governor along with other Permanent Secretaries in the state civil service.
She has a year to retire from the Civil Service.