Job Racketeering: Suspend FCC Boss Dankaka Now, CSO Tells FG

A Lagos-based Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), has called for immediate suspension of the Chairman of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Muheeba Dankaka.

The call is in reaction to a revelation made on Monday by one Haruna Kolo, an ex-aide to Dankaka, who while testifying at the ongoing investigative hearing by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies, on mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), had alleged to selling federal employment slots to job seekers at the directives of his former boss (Dankaka).

Kolo, a former IPPIS desk officer at the agency, in his testimony, alleged that Dankaka set up a job racketeering ring, collecting money from job seekers.

According to him, to avoid digital trails, the FCC boss instructed him to transfer all the money to his (Kolo) personal Ecobank account and pay her in cash which he did a couple of times in her house.

But reacting in a statement made available to THE WHISTLER on Tuesday in Lagos, CACOL regretted that it is now a norm to sell employment slots at MDAs, adding that it has made it difficult for qualified, young and academically sound Nigerians to secure employment in MDAs.

The organisation asked anti-graft agencies in the country to swing into action and prosecute all those that have been fingered in the revelation by Kolo, so as to serve as a deterrent.

CACOL also called on the House ad hoc committee to beam its searchlights on all other MDAs of government.

“As much as we agree that the testimony of Mr. kolo is highly revealing, we are not in any way surprised by his allegations and confessions. The reason is because we had stated in one of our past releases that job racketeering is now the other of the day in virtually all the Ministries and Parastatals of government.

“It is far easier for a camel to pass through the hole of a needle than for a qualified, young and academically sound Nigerian to secure employment in any of these Ministries based on merit or even Federal Character which in some cases has been used to employ job seekers at the federal level. 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 just because they cannot afford the humongous amount of money being demanded by these racketeering syndicates domiciled in all federal, state and even local government services, thereby impoverishing them and their parents who have invested a lot on their education,” CACOL said.

“We would have called for total scrapping of the Commission but considering the strategic and critical role of Federal Character Commission (FCC) operations in the country, we are seriously concerned about the enormity of corruption going on in the administration and operations of the Commission, therefore, we would like to commend the House of Representatives for carrying out this investigative hearing, we would also call on the federal government to quickly wade into the Commission’s administration with a view to sanitizing it.

“We would recommend immediate suspension of the Chair of the Commission and bringing all those responsible for these shameful and despicable acts to book. This is not the time for Anti-graft agencies to slumber; they should rather swing into action and prosecute all those that have been fingered in this revelation so as to serve as a deterrent. 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,” the organisation stated.