Arewa group tasks NASS on FCC chairperson, cautions on religious blackmail

By Usman Shuaibu, Abuja

A civil society organisation, the Arewa Professional Group (APG), has called on the National Assembly and the Presidency to put an end to what it described as “the relentless ethnic profiling, gender and religious bias against Dr Muheeba Dankaka,” chairperson of the Federal Character Commission (FCC).
Aggrieved members within FCC had alleged job racketeering and gross mismanagement against Dr Maheeba, with the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee summoning the woman to appear before it, Tuesday, but the federal commissioner representing Delta state at the Commission, Mr Moses Anaughe, accused Mrs Dankaka of lying that she had a medical appointment with her doctor to avoid the investigative hearing that was ongoing.Reacting to the development the Arewa group warned that it would not take the campaign of calumny and character assassination lying low, stressing that Maheeba “is a female professional who has remained a bastion of Sir Ahmadu Bello (Sardauna of Sokoto); a role model of our women and girl-child in the North and who has consistently prided herself in the discharge of her duties effectively, right from assuming the mantle of leadership.”
A press statement issued by the national coordinator of Arewa Professional Group, Dr Umar Bala Abdulkadir and secretary, Comrade Nazanmi Dakingari, cautioned the National Assembly “not to listen to the grand conspiracy by some individuals within and outside the Commission to malign and blackmail Dr Muheeda because of her gender, religious and ethnic backgrounds.”
The statement added that “Nigerians, and indeed, the management of FCC will agree that before the presidential elections of 2023, even the lowest cadre of staff of the FCC, the leadership of the National Assembly and the various committees were adequately aware of the avid stand, body language and sincere campaigns embarked upon by Dr Muheeba Dankaka, who did not hide her genuine efforts.
“She showed her dexterity as a great mobilizer and avid supporter of the President, Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s candidacy which, according to our investigation, did not go down well with a select few from the Labour Party (LP) principally dominated by individuals from the Southeast geopolitical zone.
“If truth must be told and upheld, Dr Muheeda Dankaka remains a stabilizing factor and a transformer of the first order, right from her assumption of office and mantle of leadership and she has gone, against all odds, to reposition, change the narrative like never before in the annals of the Commission.”