The management of National Mathematical Centre (NMC), Shedda Abuja, has dismissed media reports linking the Centre to the announcement that the payment of January 2024 salaries to Federal Government civil servants will be delayed beyond normal.
Controller, Information and Public Relations, NMC, Onyekachi Njoku, in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, said the Centre has never been the mouthpiece of the Federal Government in financial and administrative matters and could not have been in position to speak for the government on salary payment to workers.
He attributed the leakage of an innocuous internal memo signed by the acting bursar, Pius Ukwah, to assuage the curiosity of staff to handiwork of mischief makers.
Njoku urged the public to discard and disregard the misleading reports as the memo which was taking out of context was not originally meant for public consumption.
The statement read: “IT has come to the knowledge of the Management of the National Mathematical Centre that an Internal Memo issued by the Acting Bursar to assuage the curiosity of staff on the reason they have not received their January 2024 salaries has gone viral on social and traditional media news platforms purporting that salaries of all Civil/Public Servants are to be delayed.
“The Management of the Centre wishes to state unequivocally that the correspondence was an Internal Memo meant for the staff of the Centre and not to be either published or for public consumption.
“The Internal Memo without any doubt was sent to the media by internal mischief makers to achieve whatever purpose we don’t know!
“The Management, therefore, dissociates itself from the portrayal of an Internal Memo of a Government
Agency as speaking for the Federal Government. The Internal Memo in its entirety was never intended for that purpose.
“Since its inception in 1988, the Centre has concentrated and focused on its mandate of improving the teaching, learning and research in Mathematics and the Mathematical Sciences. It has never been the mouthpiece of the Federal Government in Financial and Administrative matters
“The Internal Memo was intended to inform the staff that there is no cause for alarm as everything is being done to ensure that their January 2024 salaries are paid. Every other meaning infused into the Internal Memo is mischievous and callous and should, therefore, be discarded and disregarded,” it stated.