Crime
A former staff of Federal Character Commission (FCC), Mr Haruna Kolo, on Monday alleged that job seekers paid millions of naira to his personal account for transmission to the Chairman, Mrs Farida Dankaka.
Kolo said this in Abuja at the resumed investigative hearing of House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee probing job racketeering in Federal Ministries, Department and Agencies of Government.
The committee is also probing mismanagement of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information (IPPIS) in MDAs.
The former member of staff FCC said he usually approached the Point of Sale Service (POS) agents to collect the money in cash to deliver to the chairman.
Kolo, who now worked with the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), said Dankaka appointed him as her chief protocol, while serving in FCC.
He said that he saw the allegation against him in the media regarding job racketeering.
He said some of those who came to seek for job in the commission paid between one million to five million naira depending on the MDAs.
Kolo said he had never been involved in selling job, adding that he only acted on the instruction of Dankaka who was always receiving the money in cash.
According to him, she often gives me verbal instruction in respect of people paying for jobs and lodgment after the collection of the agreed amount.
“The money is always sent to my account which I subsequently cashed to remit in cash,” he said.
Kolo said his redeployment to AMCON was with the knowledge of the chairman of the commission.
”My going to AMCON was her personal favour to me and others that left FCC at the time,” he said.
He, however, accused the chairman of going after him, when her sister was rejected at AMCON due to age factor.
Kolo said the sister in question was already 51 years at the time she was given the job at AMCON.
He said that he had been receiving several call threatening his life, while seeking protection from the committee, adding that anything that happens to me, the FCC chairman should be held responsible.
Kolo also said contrary to the chairman’s claimed that FCC had not carried out recruitment exercise since her assumption of office was not true.
He added that as a desk officer of IPPIS in FCC, the commission carried out recruitment exercise because “I am the desk officer of IPPIS for FCC and over 300 employment letters were issued but those captured by FCC were few.”
In a swift reaction to Kolo’s allegations, Dankaka said she never collected any money from Kolo as alleged, adding that it was a conspiracy between him and the other commissioners to tarnish her image.
Disturbed by the barraged of allegations, Dankaka immediately brought out a copy of Holy Qur’an, swearing ever to have collected any money from Kolo as a proceeds of job racketeering.
According to her, I have never asked him to collect money from job seekers for me.
Responding to the issues, the Chairman of the committee told Kolo, Rep Yusuf Gagdi, that the committee was in possession of an evidence that Kolo had N38.5 million in his account, which was withdrew from POS.
He said a total of N75 million was in Kolo’s account in Access Bank, UBA and Eco bank as a proceed of job racketeering
”Kolo was serving as a front for collecting money for job recruitments in the commission as against the service, financial regulation and the extant law.
”The record I have about your account you don’t even have, the record of your service I have. We are not giving any judgment in FCC, we are still investigating.
”This committee will have to be judicial in nature. We knew why we asked Kolo to give us evidence. We must come out straight; we aren’t even talking about racketeering in other MDAs.
“Kolo you are not supposed to leave here without being arrested. As a civil servant, you are not supposed to have such huge amount in your account,” the committee chairman said. (NAN)
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August 7, 2023 @ 19:13 GMT|
Tags: Mr Haruna Kolo Mrs Farida Dankaka.
