Published 29th Apr, 2023

By Joseph Adeiye

Emmanuel Dare, a Kaduna resident, has told FIJ how he was denied an employment opportunity as a social welfare officer at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Budo-Egba, in Kwara State, after he had been offered an appointment letter.

Dare told FIJ that he secured the job and received an invitation in February to come for the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) documentation in March.

It was when he visited the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Budo-Egba that the officials he met told him he had no job, despite receiving an appointment letter.

“I got a job, a federal job, in February. The hospital told us to come for our appointment letter and documentation by March 1,” Dare told FIJ on Tuesday.

“They said that we should come on March 1. But they told the prospective employees living in and around Kwara State to come for their documentation on February 23. During this period I was in Kaduna, there was no cash in town and it was a few days before the election. Despite these challenges, I was still able to prepare for the trip and got to Kwara State on March 1. I also got there early.

“I collected my appointment letter that same day. Officials from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) were around too. Everybody got busy with them. Later on, it was my turn to have my data captured with the IPPIS and they told me that my name was not in their database and they couldn’t do anything about it except I went to meet the hospital officials.

“When I met the officials of the hospital and Professor Baba Issa, the hospital’s CMD, I was told nothing could be done about the omission of my name from the database. They also said that I came late for my documentation.”

Professor Baba Issa, the chief medical director at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Budo-Egba, in Kwara State

FIJ asked Dare whether the hospital sent him a letter of disengagement but he said no.

“They sent nothing to show that the employment offer had been withdrawn,” said Dare.

“The truth is that they manipulated the whole process. It’s not like I bought a slot or anything. The Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja came in January. We did a screening and I received a message and a mail informing me of my appointment. I already resigned at my previous place of work. I just got married in October last year and it’s just bizarre.

“Right now, I am emotionally drained. I don’t want to stay at home doing nothing when I actually got a job. They said that they couldn’t find my name on the list of applicants. The total number of names of appointed applicants was 96, but the CMD told me that the 96 names on the list were already complete. Assuming what they told me was true, the list from the IPPIS the CMD referred to ought to be 95, if it was true that my name was missing.

“This was more or less a matter of sold employment or a seclusion.”

Dare told FIJ that he did everything the authorities asked the applicants to do.

Dare enrolled for the IPPIS biometric capture as required

FIJ called the IPPIS to confirm if Dare was on its records but the phone call did not connect. Several messages FIJ sent to the IPPIS phone number failed to deliver at press time.

As of press time, neither Issa nor the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Budo-Egba, had also responded to the messages sent to them .

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