Omeri’s PDP campaign, a violation of NOA Act, says APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organisation has cited the appointment of Chief Mike Omeri, the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in the Jonathan Campaign Organisation as an act of impunity, and violation of the NOA Act.
The APC Campaign said this action by ruling PDP is in violation of Part 2 Section 6 (2) of the National Orientation Agency Act which expressly prescribes that the Director General of NOA should be “non-partisan”.
The campaign organisation described this behavior as unbecoming and designed to compromise and undermine the rules and principles on which the nation’s public service was founded.
The campaign stated that this action jeopardises the neutrality, reputation and position of the service as an institution of governance.
In a statement signed by Mallam Garba Shehu, Director of Media and Publicity of the organisation, it condemned the inclusion of Omeri as a member of the Media and Publicity sub-committee of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation.
According to the APC Campaign, the action is in bad taste and contravenes the public service rules to which all public servants, including the DG of the NOA, is bound.
The statement stated further that the publication of the name of the NOA DG in some national dailies with other members of the PDP publicity sub-committee is insensitive, reckless and in poor taste.
The APC campaign organisation says the unprecedented step of co-opting public servants of any cadre into a political party’s campaign structure amounts to making the concerned public officer partisan and, therefore, a calculated attempt to pollute the reliability and appeal of the public service.
It called on the President to remedy this blunder by ensuring that Omeri is dropped from the PDP Media and Publicity sub-committee without delay, considering that it contravenes Part 2, Section 6 (2) of the rules and regulations for the appointment of the DG of NOA which states, inter alia, that the DG of the agency shall be “non-partisan”.
“In this election season, the helmsman of the NOA, by the law establishing it, should be in the forefront of the campaign for peaceful and credible election and not to be seen to be collaborating with the ruling PDP,” the APC campaign said.