By Etuka Sunday
President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday sacked the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Dr. Oluwole Oluleye.
The president however appointed Mr. Olufemi Ajayi as the new executive secretary of the Fund.
A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati said the appointment was with immediate effect.
It said Mr. Ajayi, like Oluleye, is also from Ekiti state and was until his new appointment, the Director-General of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Dr. Oluleye is the pioneer ES of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) 2003-2009, and served as Member/ Secretary, Presidential Projects Assessment Committee in 2010.
Although no reasons was given for his sack, sources said Oluleye’s removal was not unconnected with the politics in his home state.
The ousted PTDF boss is said to be very close to incumbent Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti state, who is of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), and is challenging President Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate, Ayo Fayose in this Saturday’s governorship poll in the state.
It would be recalled that in October last year, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, allegedly sacked ten top officials of the PTDF, based on the outcome of an audit which indicted them for various offences.
Sources at the ministry said the retrenchment was part of the recommendation of the staff audit carried out in the ministry last year.
