Two groups battle over NIW leadership

The leadership tussle rocking the Nigerian Institute of Welding has deepened as two rival groups continue to lay claim to the control of the professional body responsible for welding standards and certification in the country’s oil and gas sector.

The group led by Engr. Bijimi Gaiya and another by Solomon Edebiri had claimed legitimacy over the institute’s affairs.

In August, a group led by Professor Shehu Abdullahi Ma’aji, said to be an interim chairman of the NIW, held an annual general meeting at the Petroleum Training Institute Conference Centre in Effurun, Delta State. The meeting produced an interim committee led by Gaiya.

However, another group identified as the Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Institute of Welding dissociated the institute from the meeting, saying the AGM was held without authorisation.

The PUNCH had reported that the said Secretary of the NIW BoT, Dr Solomon Edebiri, described the gathering as “a shambolic exercise using the cover of an institution such as the NIW”.

Reacting in a statement yesterday, Gaiya accused Edebiri of a long history of spreading falsehoods to deceive unsuspecting stakeholders, adding that his group had been illegally parading themselves as NIW leaders despite the expiration of their tenure.

According to the caretaker leadership, Edebiri’s executive committee had ceased to exist over ten years ago, as the institute’s constitution limits an exco to two terms of three years each.

It alleged that since his tenure expired, Edebiri had continuously altered his titles—from NIW president to chairman, chief executive, and more recently, secretary of the board of trustees—without approval from the annual general meeting.