The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Job Racketeering said it is scrutinising the bank accounts of the 36 Commissioners of the Federal Character Commission (FCC) over alleged selling of employment slots.
Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee Hon.Yusuf Gagdi, disclosed this at the investigative hearing of the panel in Abuja on Monday.
Gagdi said the panel was verifying the bank accounts of the Commissioners as well as those of certain individuals that have been serving as links to sell jobs in federal agencies.
“We have put in a machinery to scrutinise all the 36 Commissioners since a lot of things and activities have happened in FCC. We are studying their accounts visavis the accounts of individuals that are serving as fronts to selling slots.
But with these specific narrations regarding Abdullahi (one of the alleged links men) who you said you have been buying slots through him and he has scammed a lot of you and the pictorial evidence of his activities with some of the commissioners,” he said.
The chairman expressed displeasure over the absence of a former FCC staff member who currently works with the Asset Management Company of Nigeria, Haruna Kolo at the investigation for the fourth time.
He said: “We are going to force Haruna Kolo to appear in whatever way and we are going to do that. He cannot come here and say whatever he wants to say and disappear.
“We asked for evidence from him, he did not give any evidence so we want to further interact with him to get more facts and he is not forthcoming.
So whatever script he is acting, we would get the facts. Nobody would drag this committee into any politics.”
Kolo had appeared before the panel last Monday when he told lawmakers that he had been collecting between N1 million to N1.5 million for the FCC Chairman, Muheeba Dankaka from individual applicants before he left the Commission.
The Ad-hoc Committee had last week issued a warrant of arrest on Kolo, a former staff of FCC who allegedly acted as a middleman for the selling of employment slots at the Commission.
Gagdi also disclosed that the probe of the FCC would henceforth be held behind closed doors so that the investigation does not detract from the objective of dealing with over 600 other agencies.
He said: “Anyone that has anything on the Federal Character Commission again, we are going to consider it behind closed doors because we may not have time. Otherwise our investigation on other agencies would be affected.
“It is good to give them fair hearing while we write to banks regarding the account statement of Abdullahi. We would equally invite him to come here and tell us what he knows about the various slots that we have received from over nine persons regarding him.”
(Leadership)
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