By Chimaobi Afiauwa, Abuja
The ongoing investigative hearing of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Job Racketeering ensued in mild drama when a former staffer of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Haruna Kolo, boldly admitted to collecting bribes from job seekers in exchange for employment.
Kolo, who was a former Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) Desk Officer at the FCC, admitted the corruption allegation against him and indicted the Commission’s Chairman.
He admitted he received over N75 million from desperate jobseekers on the instructions of the Chairman of the FCC, claiming that she instructed him to deliver the money in cash to her house a couple of times in order to conceal the evidence of transfer.
He said, “On the allegations of job racketeering, the FCC Chairman instructed me to liaise with one Mr. Shehu, who is a personal driver and Personal Assistant to the Taraba State Commissioner. As a desk officer, I was responsible for taking whoever was employed to IPPIS for capture. No one could go there without a letter from the Chairman or Human resources Officer of the FCC.
“When she came, she wrote a letter to the Accountant General of the Federation, instructing that no letter from the FCC should be honored unless she signs the letter. So, whenever there was new employment, she signed it, gave it to me, and I took it to the Accountant General’s office for capture.
“Shehu is the one who brought those who paid money to my account for the job; some paid N1 million, others N1.5 million, all to my personal account, my Ecobank account. She asked me to give her cash, which I did through POS. So, there is no evidence of a transfer or anything.
But, on her part, the indicted FCC Chairman, Muheeba Dankaka, swore by the Holy Qur’an that she never collected any money from Kolo, nor did she instruct him to collect money from job seekers.
“If I’ve ever collected money from this Kolo or asked him to collect money on my behalf, may God destroy all that I’ve worked for.”
In what later became a show of accusations and counter-accusations, Kolo denied having seven federal jobs at once, noting that he resigned from the FCC to take a job at the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), a favor he said his former boss, Dankaka, did to him for serving her diligently.
He also alleged that his life was threatened to the extent that he had left Abuja, warning that if anything should happen to him, Dankaka should be held responsible.
Responding, the chairman of the committee, Yusuf Gagdi, promised to do everything possible to unravel the truth and make the same available to Nigerians, while assuring Kolo that nothing will happen to him.
The committee will reconvene on Tuesday to continue the hearing.
