Sylvester Idowu in Warri

The Nigerian Institute of Welding (NIW) has commenced moves to flush out alleged impersonators parading themselves as members of the professional group.

The Secretary of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of NIW, Chief Solomon Edebiri, in a statement issued yesterday assured them that the Institute was set to apply the full weight of the law on the alleged impersonators.

He disclosed that the annual general meeting (AGM) of the Institute slated for the last quarter of the year at its national headquarters in Benin City, Edo State,  would take  decisive steps  to put an end to cases of impersonation of membership of the Institute.

“The NIW is planning its annual general meeting (AGM) for the last quarter of the year. And it will be at the Institute’s headquarters in Benin-city, Edo State. It will address a lot of issues, including infiltration of the institute by non-financial members, abuse of powers by non-members and a lot of related illegal activities by dismissed staff of the Institute,” he stated.

While noting that the AGM would x-ray activities of the Institute in the last three years, Chief Edebiri maintained that it would also look into erring members and decisions it would come up with to sanction those denigrating the name of the Institute.

He said in the last three years, NIW had trained about 60 welding accessors,  internal and external quality assurance officers and several others, stressing that the institute was working assiduously to ensure that sufficient internationally certified welders were available to meet the local needs of the industrial sector.

Edebiri disclosed that some of the trainings were in collaboration with the National  Board for Technical Education (NBTE) while the Institute also funded some of the exercises.

“We are pushing to train more accessors in the industry. We want the country to be well grounded in welding in line with the international framework,” he added.

Edebiri said the body was working with the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology to train welding coordinators across the country, noting that they were done with the South-west and the South-south zones.

“We are working on the South-east zone and then we will  proceed to the northern regions. The federal government wants to equip every zone with competent welding coordinators that are certified under the International Institute of Welding.

“Our focus is to build a strong capacity for the country in terms of Control, Quality Assurance, and Quality Control in terms of welding operations in the industry. We are pushing for other activities in collaboration with government interventionist agencies,” he said.

Chief Edebiri debunked the alleged AGM of the institute held at the PTI Conference Centre in Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State recently, emphasising that such impersonations by some persons were matters that would be addressed at the coming AGM billed for last quarter of the year in Edo State.

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