Job racketeering: House of Reps’ c’ttee hears multi-million naira dirty deals

Recent revelations at the sitting of a House of Representatives ad hoc committee set up to probe job racketeering in government establishments show how bad the situation is.  The house set up the ad-hoc  committee chaired by Yusuf Adamu Gagdi (APC, Plateau) to investigate ‘Ministries Departments and Agencies on mismanagement of personnel recruitment, employment racketeering […]

Recent revelations at the sitting of a House of Representatives ad hoc committee set up to probe job racketeering in government establishments show how bad the situation is. 

The house set up the ad-hoc  committee chaired by Yusuf Adamu Gagdi (APC, Plateau) to investigate ‘Ministries Departments and Agencies on mismanagement of personnel recruitment, employment racketeering and gross mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) after a motion moved and adopted by Oluwole Oke (PDP, Osun).

Since the beginning of the sitting of the committee, it has been inundated with revelations involving a complex ring of officials involved in underhand dealings, including selling job offers at a price running into millions.

Chairman of the committee said they have petitions against 39 MDAs over allegations of job racketeering and other infractions.

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He said some of the MDAs accused include: the Federal Character Commission (FCC); Office of the Head of Service; Budget Office, IPPIS, Federal Civil Service Commission and others.

He said the committee will also in line with its mandate engage over 600 MDAs to unearth the extent of job racketeering in the federal civil service.

At the centre of it all is the Federal Character Commission (FCC), an agency set up to ensure equitable representation of all parts of Nigeria in the federal civil service.

The FCC is headed by a chairman and has 37 commissioners representing the 36 states and the FCT.

However, as revealed at the sitting of the committee, beneath the facade of the representation lies a corrupt entity churning in millions in kickbacks, outright sales of job slots.

Another agency that had been aiding the fraud as alleged at the committee’s sitting is the IPPIS, a platform incharge of processing payment of salaries for federal civil servants.

Things began to unravel when at the initial sitting of the committee the FCC’s chairperson, Muheeba Dankaka, failed to appear before it and sent in some commissioners to represent her, claiming to have an appointment with her doctor.

However, in the middle of the sitting, the FCC commissioner representing Delta State, Moses Anaughe, alleged that the chairperson was in her office and the doctor’s appointment side of her story was a farce.

This opened the floodgates of accusations and counter-accusations between the chairperson and a group of some commissioners called ‘Integrity Group’, when she appeared at the next sitting of the committee.

The commissioners, in various written petitions to the committee, accused the chairperson of running a ring selling job slots, using a ‘rogue staff’ called Haruna Kolo as a proxy.

The commissioner representing Osun State in the commission, Abdulrazak Adewuyi, and the commissioner representing Rivers State, Okwacha Augustine, alleged that the chairperson has been running the commission in violation of Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), Section 2 of the FCC Act and other extant laws.

Some documents submitted to the committee by the commissioners in the ‘Integrity Group’ alleged that Dankaka often connived with MDAs to collect 10 per cent of jobs.

However, the chairperson denied the allegations saying it was a gang-up by the aggrieved commissioners to tarnish her image because of her stance to stop the unwholesome practice of job racketeering in FCC.

She accused the commissioners from the ‘Integrity Group’ of mischief and blackmail because of her refusal to compromise.

Dankaka informed the committee that the commissioners were selling jobs before she came into office in July 2020 and her refusal to join the fray was the reason they moved against her.

“When you fight corruption, corruption will fight back.

“I did not come to make money, but to serve my fatherland; what some of them are looking for is money. Before I came here I had made my money. Some of them have their reasons for attacking me.

The committee in a widespread covert investigation through banks, other MDAs and witnesses that appeared before it, discovered how the syndicate run the job racketeering ring across MDAs using various fronts and proxies.

Kolo’s appearance opened the Pandora’s Box after he had admitted selling job slots when he was confronted with evidence of transactions amounting to N75 million linked to his personal accounts in three banks.

He confessed that he received millions of naira from people who paid for job placements, allegedly on behalf of the executive chairperson, Muheeba Dankaka.

“The FCC chairman instructed me to liaise with one Mr Shehu who is a personal driver and PA to the Taraba State commissioner. As a desk officer, I am responsible to take whoever is employed to IPPIS for capturing. No one can go there without a letter from the Chairman or Human Resource officer of FCC.

“When she came, she wrote a letter to the Accountant General instructing that no letter from FCC should be honoured except she signs the letter. So whenever there was new employment, she signed, gave to me and I took to the Accountant General’s office for capturing.

“Shehu is the one that brought those who paid monies to my account for jobs. Some paid N1million others N1.5 million all to my personal account. She asked me to give cash to her, which I did through POS so there is no evidence of transfer or anything.”

Two victims, who appeared before the committee, Abdulmalik Isah Ahmed and Ali Muhammed Yero, said they paid N3 million to Haruna Kolo through a proxy in the FCC to secure a job.They added that they were not posted or given any assignment while they received salaries.

“After having the appointments, Mr Kolo promised us to be posted in two months.

“All of the commissioners are having candidates, nothing less than a candidate, and some of the directors also because I have been interacting with people in the system.

Also Ali Muhammed Yero said: “My brothers, Nurudeen Yaro and Abdulrazak Yaro, paid the sum of N2 million to Badamasi Yaro’s account on the 2nd of August, 2022. Badamasi Yaro is working with Haruna Kolo.

“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 August 5, 2022. Badamasi took me to Treasury House in Abuja where Kolo Haruna took me to the IPPIS office and I was captured on their platform.

Two other witnesses, the driver and Personal Assistant to the Commissioner representing Taraba State in the commission, Yusha’u Gambo and Abdulrahman Ibrahim, respectively appeared before the committee.

Their names were mentioned by two victims of alleged job racketeering who earlier appeared before the committee.

The driver to the Taraba commissioner, Yusha’u Gambo, said he was approached by Haruna Kolo to bring people looking for job slots to buy which he obliged.

He said he brought 10 people who bought slots from Kolo and was paid various commissions from N50,000 to N100,000 per slot.

He said the job seekers paid between N1 million and N2 million to secure the slots, which they paid through his account which he later transferred to Kolo.

In one of the instances, Gambo said, “Kolo told me to tell the person that he is paying N2 million. I called the person and told him the price Kolo said he was going to pay. The first person paid N2 million.

“When the boy came, Kolo took him to IPPIS where he was captured. They sent the money to my account and I showed the alert to Kolo. I could not transfer the money to his account, so we went to Zenith Bank where I transferred N1.9 million to his account.”

Abdulrahman Ibrahim told the committee that he came to the commission in 2020 as the Personal Assistant (PA) to the Taraba State Commissioner.

He said he was employed as a staff member of the commission in 2023, given an appointment letter and was awaiting regularisation.

Contrary to the claims of the FCC officials that there was no recruitment in 2023, Ibrahim said he was employed based on the two slots given to each of the 37 commissioners in the commission.

During her appearance before the committee, the Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF), Folashade Yemi-Esan, accused MDAs of employing far above the number they requested and was approved for them.

She said federal universities were the worst in this regard as they employ non-academic staff which such waivers did not cover.

“That was why we decided whenever they want to recruit, they should write to the National Universities Commission which oversees them directly, then NUC will write to us,” she said.

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Sakirat Madein, told the panel that out of the 900 federal government agencies, 640 have so far been enrolled on IPPIS.

The chairman of the committee, Yusuf Adamu Gagdi, described the level of job racketeering in MDAs as alarming.

“There is no agency in Nigeria that would exonerate itself of some of these defects of favouritism, nepotism and what have you. Waiver is a fraud. Agencies are hiding under waiver to recruit their family members, friends and to sell jobs.

He said agencies often failed to advertise vacancies, denying many qualified Nigerians the opportunity to apply.

A civil society organisation, the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), has called for prosecution of some staff and management of the Federal Character Commission (FCC) over their involvement in job racketeering.

The group’s chairman, Debo Adeniran, lamented that it is now a norm to sell employment slots, promote mediocrity, employ those with god-fathers and perpetually keep the children of the poor in the unemployment web.

“We would have called for total scrapping of the commission but considering the strategic and critical role of FCC operations in the country. We are seriously concerned about the enormity of corruption going on in the administration and operations of the commission.

He called for the immediate suspension of the chair of the commission and bringing all those responsible for these `shameful and despicable’ acts to book.

‘’More importantly, we hope the allegations will not be swept under the carpet and that the House of Representatives ad hoc committee should also beam its searchlights on all other MDAs of government,” he said.