More revelations have come out of the House of Representatives panel probing job racketeering and abuse of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) by Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs).
Daily Trust had reported how a desk officer of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Haruna Kolo, confessed to have received millions of naira from job-seekers on behalf of the chairman of the FCC, Muheeba Dankaka.
According to Koko, he collected the money and transferred to Dankaka, whom he said rewarded him with the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
The chairman of the commission had denied the allegation, saying she could prove her innocence by swearing with the Quran.
Job racketeering: I collected millions for FCC chair, suspect tells reps
But when they appeared before the committee on Tuesday, Abdulmalik Isah Ahmed and Ali Muhammad Yero, confirmed payment of N3 million for jobs at FCC.
Ahmed said they were convinced to make the payment when they were promised to be among the persons recruited in 2021.
He said, “Because, we learnt that, there was a recruitment, 2021 recruitment, each of the Commissioners and directors have candidates. We who were nobody’s, ordinary citizens of the country, we came through this process.”
“After having the appointments, Mr Kolo promised us to be posted like in two months time. That was the reason we were convinced about him. I get to know Kolo through the driver of Taraba Commissioner at FCC. I transferred a million Naira to Kolo’s account on the arrangement that, because I was told that, the monthly pay is about N140,000 or N130,000. So, we agreed on N1.5million with driver first. We bargained with the driver on behalf of Kolo. His name is Yusha’u Gambo.”
The other witness, Ali Muhammad Yero, said his two brothers paid N2million in instalments to secure the job for him.
According to him, one of them paid N1.5million while the other paid N500,000 as balance.
“My brothers Nurudeen Yero and Abdulrazak Yero paid the sum of N2million Naira to Badamasi Yaro’s account on the 2nd of August 2022. Badamasi Yaro is working with Haruna Kolo and the money paid into his account was for a job at federal Character Commission.
“Haruna Kolo told me the slot was from the Chairperson of the commission that is why I would be captured under IPPIS platform Badamasi brought the employment letter with some documents for me on the 5th August 2022, Badamasi took me to Treasury House where Kolo Haruna took me to the IPPIS office and I was captured on IPPIS platform”.
They, however said, their appointment letters were later collected by the Human Resources unit of the FCC and promised to be regularised after an investigation.
He said despite the fact that, his appointment letter was collected back by the FCC, he was still receiving salary.
He said started mounting pressure for posting because he did not want to continue receiving salary without working.
After their submissions, Chairman of the Committee, Yusuf Adamu Gagdi told the witnesses to reach out to the other applicants involved as the committee would arrange a meeting with them on the matter.
He also told the Clerk to invite Haruna Kolo, the Secretary and driver to the Commissioner representing Taraba in the FCC to appear before Committee on Wednesday to explain their roles as proxies in the job racketeering.
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