The chairperson and the commissioners accused themselves of impropriety and nepotism.
The Chairperson of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Muheeba Dankaka, and some of its commissioners were, on Wednesday, engaged in accusations and counter-accusations of impropriety and nepotism at the resumed hearing of the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating job racketeering at federal establishments.
The committee is investigating ministries, departments, agencies (MDAs), parastatals, and tertiary institutions on personnel recruitment, employment racketeering, and the mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
PREMIUM TIMES had reported the drama that unfolded at the hearing on Tuesday when some commissioners of the FCC accused Mrs Dankaka of lying to the House about having a doctor's appointment to avoid appearing before the committee.
The committee then directed the chairperson and all the commissioners to appear before it on Wednesday.
At the resumption of the hearing, some commissioners accused Mrs Dankaka of running a racketeering ring and disregarding the Act establishing the commission.
Moses Anaughe, the commissioner representing Delta State, accused the chairperson of using agents to sell employment slots. He claimed that she sometimes demands 10 per cent of the total vacancies in MDAs.
"Dr Dankaka will request the chief executives to come to her office and discuss 10 per cent. She does collect 10 per cent from all MDAs of all the employment she is signing. All those 10 per cent she is collecting, those are the slots that she employs agents that are selling.
"I have two employment letters here of her children in juicy agencies where the annual salary is N6.1 million; the other is N8.2 million. I have the appointment letters here.
"I just also want to inform this committee if she finds any agency doing employment that is paying more than these MDAs, she will move them to that MDA. She moves them from MDA to MDA," he said.
Mr Anaughe added that "She has a lot of agents selling slots for her. After selling, they have a central pool where they remit all the monies, whereby they will withdraw and collect USSD and give it to her. I have all the account details here. In my submission, we have a lot of things to reveal."
Abdulrazak Adeoye, the commissioner representing Osun State, accused Mrs Dankaka of removing people's names from the payroll and replacing them with others.
"She surreptitiously removed the names of Nigerians from the payroll of FCC and replaced them without the knowledge of most commissioners," he said.
Similarly, Mamman Alakaye, the commissioner from Nasarawa State, also tendered some documents to the committee, purported to be employment involving Mrs Dankaka's son.
"Mr Chairman, I want to tender a document to support what my colleagues have said so far. For example, her son was employed at NCC, which I am aware of. Just last week, she transferred him from NCC to Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission. He did his documentation with IPPIS just this week. I have the document to tender," he said.
Rich before joining government-- Dankaka
Mrs Dankaka, while responding to the allegations against her, said she had already made money before joining the government, adding that it was a case of corruption fighting back.
She said the commission was "a marketplace for selling jobs" before she joined in 2021.
"I now believe the adage that says when you fight corruption, corruption will fight back.
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"I did not come to this place (FCC) to make money but to serve my father's land.
"I swear with Almighty God, apart from the oath, I can take an oath with the Quran. Before I came here, I had made my name. I had made my money.
"Before I got to this place (FCC), they were selling slots. The place was like a marketplace. You can find out from people that live in Abuja if I am lying," she said.
In his ruling, the Chairman of the Committee, Yusuf Gagdi (APC, Plateau), said it is committed to getting to the root of the matter.
"The committee will deep-rootedly investigate. We shall do justice where justice is supposed to be needed", he said, adding that the lawmakers had "taken cognisance " of the submissions made by commissioners.
Mr Gagdi also asked the FCC chairperson to bring the payroll of the commission.
