Power tussle tears NIPOST apart as 2 Postmaster General emerge

President Bola Tinubu may have plunged the Nigerian Postal Service, NIPOST, into crisis and confusion, following the appointment of a new Postmaster General and the reinstatement of the suspended holder of the office.

The president on Thursday removed Sunday Adepoju as the Postmaster-General, PMG, of NIPOST and appointed Tola Odeyemi as his replacement.

However, in a now-deleted announcement via its X (formerly Twitter) handle NIPOST claimed  that Mr. Adepoju had been reinstated handle less than 24 hours after, thereby throwing the organisation into confusion.

Consequeitly, Adepoju reported for work on Monday and stayed till about 12noon.

The confusion has led to a protest by the workers under the aegis of NIPOST under the National Union of Postal and Telecommunication Employees, NUPTE, which threw it weight behind  Adepoju while rejecting the newly appointed Odeyemi.

They placed some placards at the gate of the headquarters of the organisation in Abuja, welcoming Mr Adepoju and rejecting Odeyemi.

Some of the placards read: “Leave our PMG alone, he is working,” one of the placards read. Others read, “We don’t want Ola Odeyemi (Ms), leave Sunday Adepoju,” and “If you want development, give us Sunday Adepoju”.

Buba Nehemiah, NUPTE President, explained that the workers’  protest was meant to draw attention to the plight of the agency and not an attack on the president or minister.

According to Nehemiah, Adepoju, had made impactful changes in the government agency in less than a year after his appointment.

He said: “How many people are bringing their mail again? Nobody was patronising NIPOST. But overnight, things changed and we are recovering then you say we should go back to square one. And you want us to be quiet.”