A former staff of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Mr Haruna Kolo on Monday alleged that contrary to the picture painted by the Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Farida Dankaka, job seekers actually coughed out millions of naira for remission to her in cash.
He also said that the claim by the chairman of the FCC that she did not carry out any recruitment since her assumption of office was false, saying that as a desk officer of IPPIS in FCC, he could confidently confirm that the commission carried out recruitments at different times.
According to Kolo; “I am the desk officer of IPPIS for FCC and I know for sure that over 300 employment letters were issued but, those captured by FCC were few”.
Kolo, who appeared before the resumed investigative hearing of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee probing job racketeering in Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government, said that when he was the Chief Protocol officer to Dankaka at the FCC, he acted on the instruction of the Chairman of the Commission and collected monies that were paid into his account after which he withdrew cash and handed over to Dankaka.
The House of Reps Ad-hoc committee which is also probing the alleged infractions and mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information (IPPIS) in MDAs, was also told by Kolo that he usually approached the Point of Sale (POS) agents to collect the money in cash to deliver to the chairman of the FCC, Dankaka.
Kolo, who is presently with the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), said that he read the allegation against him with regards to job racketeering in the media.
In the words of Kolo; “Some of those who came to seek for job at the Commission paid between N1 million and N5 million depending on the MDAs. I was not involved in job racketeering but, only acted on the instruction of Dankaka, who usually received the money in cash.
“She often gave me verbal instruction in respect of people paying for jobs and lodgement after the collection of the agreed amount. The money is always sent to my account, which I subsequently cashed and take to her in cash,” Kolo alleged.
Continuing, Kolo explained that his redeployment to AMCON was with the knowledge of the chairman of the commission, adding that it was her personal favour to him and others that left FCC at the time.
Kolo pointedly accused Dankaka of going after him when her sister was rejected at AMCON as a result of age factor, adding that the sister in question was already 51 at the time she was offered the job at AMCON.
He said that he had been receiving several calls threatening his life and sought the protection of the committee.He warned that the FCC chairman should be held responsible, should anything sinister happened to him.
But, responding to the weighty allegations by Kolo, the FCC chairman, Dr. Dankaka said she never collected any money from Kolo, saying that his allegations were part of the grand conspiracy by him and the commissioners just to tarnish her image.
Dankaka thereafter brought out a copy of the Holy Qur’an and swore that she never collected any money from Kolo as proceeds of job racketeering, saying; “I have never asked him to collect money from job seekers for me”.
In his comment, the Chairman of the House of Reps Ad-hoc committee, Hon. Yusuf Gagdi, told Kolo that the committee was in possession of evidence that he had N38.5 million lodged in his account which was withdrawn from POS.
Gagdi further said that N75 million was in Kolo’s accounts with Access Bank, UBA and EcoBank as proceeds of job racketeering
According to the Chairman of the committee; “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 and 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 are not 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,” Gagdi stressed.
