By Martin Odiete
Overwhelming disappointment, anger and despair can best describe the feelings of members of FCTA Staff Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society LTD following what many have described as sabotage of the Societys General Elections which was scheduled for September 7, 2024 but was botched by the Director of Co-operatives in FCTA, Engr. Gbemi Omole.
Hundreds of Members of the Co-operative Society drawn from various Secretariats, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Capital Territory Administration who trooped to the Cyprian Ekwensi Arts and Culture Centre in Area 10, Abuja left with hopes dashed after the Director through his representative was said to introduce an alleged ‘forged copy’ of the Bye-law soon after he dissolved the last Executive.
www.theajasanews.com reports that all was well from the onset up to the period of dissolving the former cabinet but things took a twist after the representative of the Director, Mr. Salako Taorid, a Deputy Director in-charge of the Registry Unit began to read from a copy of the Bye-law which most members said was forged.
A copy of the forged Bye-Law obtained through investigation by Ajasa News showed a contentious clause that Mr. Salako read from Part VI on Page 9 which excluded some of the top contenders in the election for the post of President, Financial Secretary and Treasurer. These posts, according to the Deputy Director of the Registrar remained the exclusive preserve of members from the Co-operative Department and the Registrars Unit.
The controversial clause read “All Management Committee Officials shall be elected at Annual General Meetings from members except the post of the President, Financial Sect and Treasurer shall be from mother department and Unit….”
On the contrary, further checks by the Ajasa News Online indicated that the Original copy obtained showed that all members from the SDAs were free to contest any posts of their choice.
This controversy, according to a frontline contender in the election, Comr. Emmanuel Tortiv amounted to a co-operative coup detat against members of the Society by a cabal in the Co-operative Department which he said ‘must be investigated and culprits made to face the wrath of the law’.
Speaking in an interview with our Reporter, Comr. Tortiv who was a former General Secretary and Vice President said though the Cabals targeted his candidature with the coup detat, they only ended putting spanners in their wheels by exonerating his long lamentation that the Director, former President Emmanuel Abenu and the Treasurer Saadatu Salau were directly interfering with the electoral processes in order to install a stooge who was going to be remotely controlled.
A visibly agitated Comr. Tortiv said “My complain against these cabals in the Co-operative Department spans a period of 11 years that I have served as either General Secretary or Vice President. The former President Pastor Emmanuel Abenu retired since April 28, 2024 to the knowledge of the Director of Co-operatives Engr. Omole, yet they colluded against handing over to me as required by the Bye-Law only for the Director to supervise an election bungled by the his Agent,”
“Similarly, the Treasurer, Mrs Saadatu Salau who retired on September 1, 2024 remained in the Office to the Directors full knowledge against the Public Service Rules, extant Circulars and Co-operative Bye-Laws. This is impunity by a regulator whose job is to set standards for other Societies to comply,”
The Presidential hopeful concluded with a Hausa Proverb which says when digging a pit as a trap for your enemy; don’t dig a deep one so that when you fall inside, you can be able to come out alive.
Also reacting to the botched election, a member of the Co-operative Society from the Agric and Rural Development Secretariat, Pastor Kayode Fadoyin said the sabotage by the Director and his agents amounted to a daylight robbery.
“When the so called Registrar unilaterally came up to say that all the Secretariat that are involved cannot contest for the post of President, Financial Secretary and Treasurer of the FCTA Staff Multi-purpose Co-operative Society except only those from the parent co-operative which is Agric and Rural Development Secretariat. The question is why they named it FCTA SMCS instead of ARDs SMCS”? Asked the Chairman, Committee for Good Governance (Afenifere).
He accused Mr. Salako Taorid of leading a gang of desperate colleagues to deliberately destroy the FCTA SMCS with his singular action on the botched elections.
Similarly in her reaction, Comrade Ngozi Uloma Ufomba, a member of the Co-operative Society who is also the Chairman of FCTA Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) expressed sadness and disappointment with the actions of the Director, his Registrar and co for wasting the peoples time.
“I was told when I got into the Hall that everything was in place before the time. I am very dissatisfied that he brought a Bye-Law outside our Bye-Law. How can you forge a Constitution that was not approved by the house and attempt to force it down the throat of the members? As a Constitution, it must be approved by the General Congress that owns the Co-operative not by few individuals let alone by a man that is not a member of the Co-operative Society,” Stated Comr. Ngozi.
She concluded her remarks saying as the Chairman of NUJ, FCTA Chapel, she has no power to go and print the Bye-Law of the Union outside the one that the Union has as “even the National Secretariat cannot just go and print except they call a National Congress,”
Further checks by this paper have revealed that the FCTA Staff Co-operative Society was registered in 2002 by the Co-operative Registry in the Agric and Rural Development Secretariat.
Since then, 22 years ago, the leadership of the Co-operative Society remained firmly in the hands of the parent Co-operative until in 2013 when Comr. Emmanuel Tortiv broke ranks to emerge as the General Secretary from the Ministers Office.
In 2020, a General Elections organized on the existing Bye-laws saw Comr. Tortiv and two others from Health Secretariat and Ministers Office emerge as Assistant Secretary and Financial Secretary respectively.
The latest shenanigans propped up by the Department and Registry along with some of the retired Management Officials is connected with ensuring that no one outside Agric is found in the Executive, a situation that is already heating up the polity in the Society.
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