Recalled Nigeria’s Ambassador to Kenya, Dr. Chijioke Wigwe, may be retired soon from the country’s diplomatic service, as he has reached the 60-year retirement age, Empowered Newswire reports.
Diplomatic sources confirmed that while Wigwe has since been recalled for consultations by President Goodluck Jonathan from his duty post in Kenya, the Federal Government is considering retiring him since he has attained the compulsory retirement age.
Last month news broke from the Kenyan media that Wigwe reportedly beat his wife leading to her hospitalisation with photos of the battering splashed all over the Internet.
The envoy, who was born on June 6, 1951 in Abia State, joined the foreign service in 1984 after a stint teaching at the University of Jos.
After a dramatic and passionate expose in the Kenyan media of wife battering against the Ambassador, he and his son have come out to deny the allegations, while federal government investigations proceeded at the Foreign Affairs Ministry head office in Abuja.
A top diplomatic source confirmed that Wigwe would likely be simply retired since he has already reached the age of retirement.
According to Nigeria’s federal government civil service rules, which also applies to the foreign service, the compulsory retirement age for civil servants is whichever comes earlier; 60 years of age or 35 years in service.
The Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Dr. Martin Uhomoibhi, had told reporters in Abuja that the Federal Government would not rush into judging Wigwe over the allegations of wife battering.
He said, “When events like this involve a diplomatic person, we have to apply the diplomatic rules and practices. So what we promptly did after reading from the pages of newspapers was inviting the envoy for consultations and he has been around for that.”
He said that Wigwe would be given the opportunity to state his own side of the story, which has already been publicly rendered just like the wife’s allegations of battering.
“Nigeria subscribes to democratic practices including all the rules and other international treaties and conventions. We are not rushing to judgment, we are giving it a very careful thought and analysis and we want to comply with the doctrine of fair hearing,” he said.
He said that while the Ministry could only recommend an action on the fate of Wigwe, ultimately it was the President who could recall and decide the fate of the envoy, since an Ambassador was the appointee of the President.
Although his retirement age can be used to close Wigwe’s case, it is also believed that he can also receive a punitive disengagement from the foreign service if he is found wanting at the end of the investigations.
Punch Newspaper
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