A Nigerian lady has found herself out of a job after criticising the government on Twitter especially Vice President Osinbajo and Mrs. Buhari.
The lady identified as Bolouere Opukiri had posted one tweet in which she called Osinbajo a ‘Novice’ for travelling out of the country when Buhari was ill and in another tweet she had also accused Aisha Buhari of not being as classy as Patience Jonathan when the former had criticised who she called ‘Hyenas’ and ‘Jackals’ in the President’s inner circle.
According to a report on PREMIUM TIMES, the tweets were saved by pro-government factions and mailed to her superiors asking for Ms. Opukiri’s dismissal.
Ms. Opukiri who worked at the media unit of the presidential amnesty office was dismissed as the tweets were seen as a threat to national security and she was dismissed.
According to PREMIUM TIMES, Laolu Akande, the spokesperson for Mr Osinbajo, was the person who received the email with the complaints about Ms. Opukiri with the sender of the email claiming that if nothing was done about Ms. Opukiri’s job, then it would undermine those who were in support of the government.
The email was then moved up the chain and eventually Ms. Opukiri was investigated and summoned before a panel. She defended herself saying that she had done nothing wrong. She was dismissed the next day.
According to PREMIUM TIMES, her sack letter claimed that she made ‘false claims’ against a ‘government official’ in her July 5 (the Aisha Buhari tweet) tweet. The claims were ‘prejudicial to state security” and also “inimical to the image of the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger-Delta Affairs.”
According to public service rule (PSR) 030407, a false claim against a public official was grounds for dismissal from service and this is what the panel based its decision on.
Ms. Opukiri is of the opinion that her rights have been trampled on. Ms. Opukiri did get another job with Double Helix Nigeria Limited, a new outsourcing firm contracted by the amnesty office, however, she was also let go by the new company.
“They told him they were aware that I had been reinstated and he immediately took steps to get me fired once again to avoid offending the presidency,” Ms. Opukiri said to PREMIUM TIMES
