Without Working, I Earned Salaries after Paying N1m for Job Slot at FCC, Man Tells Probe Panel

The House of Representatives’ ad-hoc committee investigating alleged job racketeering and abuse of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System by Ministries, Department, and Agencies on Tuesday uncovered more shady deals at the Federal Character Commission.

Recall that on Monday, an ex-desk officer at the FCC, Haruna Kolo confessed to having received millions of naira from job seekers on behalf of the FCC chairman, Muheebat Dankaka

At the continuation of the investigations on Tuesday, the duo of Abdulmalik Ahmed and Ali Yero confirmed payment of N3 million for jobs at FCC.

According to Ahmed, they agreed to pay the huge sum of money after getting the assurances that they would be among the first persons to be employed in 2021.

He said, “We learnt that there was recruitment in 2021 and each of the commissioners and directors had candidates. We who were nobodys, ordinary citizens of the country, we came through this process.”

“After having the appointments, Mr. Kolo promised to post us like in two months’ time. That was the reason we were convinced about him. I got to know Kolo through the driver of the Taraba Commissioner at FCC. I transferred a million naira to Kolo’s account on the arrangement, because I was told that, the monthly pay was about N140,000 or N130,000. So, we agreed on N1.5million with the driver first. We bargained with the driver on behalf of Kolo. His name is Yusha’u Gambo.”

On his part, Yero said his two brothers paid N2million in installments to secure the job for him.

He noted that one of them paid N1.5m while the other paid N500,000 as balance.

“My brothers, Nurudeen Yero and Abdulrazak Yero paid the sum of N2m to Badamasi Yaro’s account on August 2, 2022. Badamasi Yaro is working with Haruna Kolo and the money paid into his account was for a job at the FCC.

“Haruna Kolo told me the slot was from the chairperson of the commission. That was why I would be captured under the IPPIS platform. Badamasi brought the employment letter with some documents for me on August 5, 2022, Badamasi took me to Treasury House where Kolo Haruna took me to the IPPIS office and I was captured on the IPPIS platform”.

They added however that their appointment letters were later collected from them by the Human Resources Unit with a promise to regularise them after an investigation.

Although his appointment letter was collected from him, Yero said he was still receiving salaries.

After their submissions, Chairman of the Committee, Yusuf Gagdi, told the witnesses to reach out to the other applicants involved to enable the committee to arrange a meeting with them.

He thereafter directed the Clerk to invite Kolo, the Secretary and driver to the Commissioner representing Taraba in the FCC to appear before Committee on Wednesday to explain their roles as proxies in the alleged job racketeering.