Minister claims CIP boss resigned for ‘personal reasons’

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While Prime Minister Gaston Browne remains overseas, his minister of information has said little more than that – the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Citizenship by Unit (CIU) resigned for “personal reasons”.

When he spoke during Thursday’s post-Cabinet press conference, Melford Nicholas told news media that the Cabinet was well aware of the CEO’s December resignation and “discussed it at a previous Cabinet meeting”.

Nevertheless, the fact was only publicised after OBSERVER media received a tip that Chisanga Chekwe had tendered his letter to the prime minister. In the meantime, Nicholas has indicated that the public will have to wait on Browne “to…respond in more particular terms”.

OBSERVER media made every effort to contact the CEO himself, but the CIU reported that he was very busy and might only reply to queries via email. Queries were sent but no reply was forthcoming up to the time of going to press.

Chekwe, who took up the post around the end of May 2016, tendered his resignation with only six months on the job. The minister of information

confirmed that he is expected to leave in another six months around the middle of 2017.

When the government first announced that Chekwe had been fingered for the job, it reported

that he had served for more than five years as deputy minister in the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship, Immigration and Interna-tional Trade.

The former deputy minister is the second Canadian to be nominated to the position of CEO of the CIU, the first being Don Myatt, who was formerly an official in the Canadian Immigration Service.

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