DPR Calls Bashir Ahmad’s Appointment Letter Fake

By Ahmed Rahma

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on Tuesday disowned the letter of appointment purportedly issued to one of the media aides of President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr Bashir Ahmad.

On Monday, an online news platform, The Peoples Gazette, published a report that Mr Ahmad was secretly appointed as a Manager by the oil regulatory agency with the assistance of the presidency.

Mr Ahmad had refuted the report, saying, “A friend sent me a link to a concocted story from an online news blog that the President has quietly appointed me as a manager of the DPR, a department of Ministry of Petroleum Resources, for those who want to know the truth, the story is 100% FALSE. I am not a staff of the DPR.”

A day after, the news organisation, in an effort to back up its story, released a letter it claimed was issued by the DPR for the appointment of the presidential aide.

The purported employment letter indicated that Mr Ahmad was appointed on January 19, 2021, and given three months to either accept or reject it.

In the said letter, Mr Ahmad, a graduate of Mass Communications, was placed on Grade Level 5 Step 1, far lower than the Grade 8 university graduates are placed at entry-level.

Reacting to the issue on Tuesday afternoon, the DPR in a statement signed by its Head of Public Affairs, Mr Paul Osu, disowned the letter and called it fake.

“The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) attention has been drawn to a fake letter of appointment circulating on social media purportedly issued to one Bashir Ahmad.

“This is the handiwork of some mischief makers hiding behind the veil of social media to spread fake news and mislead the public.

“We hereby advise members of the public to disregard the purported letter in its entirety as it is not from DPR .

“We wish to reiterate that employment into the Department is carried out in accordance with extant rules guiding such exercises in the Nigerian Public Service in line with due process,” the statement said.

DPR is one of the lucrative agencies of the federal government and it has been alleged that slots are given to powerful people in the country to fill vacant posts there.

President Buhari and top officials of his government have mostly been accused of putting their persons in these plumb agencies, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), amongst others.