The Nigeria Meteorological Society (NMS), a body of meteorologists in the country, has kicked against the planned amendment of the Act of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (Nimet).

The current 2022 Act of NiMet, like other five aviation agencies was assented to in August 2022 by former President Muhammed Buhari.

The group in an open letter on Wednesday, alleged that the planned amendment was aimed at favouring the present Director-General, Prof. Charles Anosike who they alleged was not qualified for the office.

The petition signed by Princewill Solomon Dagogo, President North East Zonal Coordinator, Nigeria Meteorological Society recalled that a lawsuit had been served to President Bola Tinubu in August on the non-qualification of Anosike, maintaining that his appointment by Mr. Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, was illegal.

Dagogo, the leader of the group insisted that Anosike lacked requisite meteorological qualifications or a closely related scientific background to lead NiMet as stipulated in the NiMet Act 2022 10(3) and 10(4) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The group purported that the Director-General and the Director of Legal, Mr. Shola Gabriel, a Level 10 officer, since last week, had made efforts to “hurriedly amend the Act of 2022 to cover the illegal appointment of Anosike.

“Just last week the Director of Legal, Shola Gabriel issued a memo to mandate all units of the agency to come out with proposed areas in the Act amendment to disguise the areas of qualification as DG in the Act.”

According to the group, the NiMet Act 2022 10(3) states that a person “shall not be appointed as the Director-General, except he has a recognised professional degree in meteorology or any meteorological-related sciences with at least 15 years of cognate experience, five of which shall be at senior management level.”

The group also alleged that a memo was generated by the management of NiMet to hold a retreat for the House Committee on Aviation under the guise of public hearing in a bid to finally nail the coffin on the Act amendment.

Dagogo said this had since last week been generating lots of questions by the meteorologist in the agency.