Senate probes alleged job racketeering in FCC

The Senate has raised the alarm over allegations of job racketeering in the Federal Character Commission with jobs reportedly being traded for as much as N3 million.

Chairman of its Committee on Federal Character Commission, Senator Danjuma Laah, who spoke yesterday after some agencies failed to honour the panel’s summons regarding the scrutiny of their nominal rolls yesterday in Abuja, confirmed that they got reports from Nigerians alleging sale of jobs in the agency.He said one of the accounts claimed that “someone bought his job at N3 million from NPA”, adding that the “sellers are in Federal Character Commission.”

His words: “It shocked me; it made my heart to bleed; and we are going to investigate this allegation. The committee has been investigating to unravel the culprits.“Honestly the committee will leave no stone unturned in ensuring we get to the root of the matter.”Laah noted that the “dirty dealings in the commission have been on while many graduates have been roaming the streets with no jobs, while some persons are busy selling job slots to people.”

The chairman went on: “Does it make sense? It is an embarrassment to the society and the (Muhammadu) Buhari government.”According to him, the president had restated at every given opportunity that he wanted every Nigerian to enjoy his administration.“He wants to prove it by employing 100,000 of unemployed graduates, but some people are busy selling the job slots. If we confirm the allegations, we are not going to take it lying low,” the senator added.

On the defaulting agencies, he threatened them with sanctions, adding that the action was a slap in the face of the upper legislative chamber.“Honestly I will seek the Senate President’s approval to ensure all those that failed to honour our invitation are taken to court,” Laah threatened.He regretted that of the many ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that had been summoned, only a few had turned up.

Those that failed to appear before the committee yesterday include Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria which advanced internal crisis, even as the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) that had its representative walked out.Others were the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria; National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC); Security and Exchange Commission (SEC); Federal College of Education, Zaria; and the National Research Institute for Chemical Technology (NARICT), Zaria.The compliant ones included the National Eye Centre, Kaduna; Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT); and the Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, Zaria.