Job racketeering: Emotion, tears flows in Reps, as witnesses who paid millions narrate sad experience

By Christiana Ekpa

The ongoing investigative public hearing in the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee probing employment racketeering and gross mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, took different dimension on Tuesday as two witnesses who appeared before the committee narrated a sad experience of paying 1, to 2 millions to get jobs in Federal Character Commission.
The witnesses equally indicted the former desk officer of the Commission, Haruna Kolo as well as the secretary and driver of a Commissioner representing Taraba State in the Commission.
The emotion-laden started when Abdulalik Isah Ahmed and Ali Mohammed Yaro who were earlier invited for appearance before the Committee took front row to testify before the lawmakers became emotional in their speech and action which attracted the attention of the committee and most especially the chairman, Hon Yusuf Gagdi and other panelists not to interrogate them further.
In their testimony, Abdumalik Isah Ahmed and Ali Mohammed Yaro
told members of the Committee that they has been applicant for many years after they graduated from Universities and was at several occasions been persuaded by many notorious group such as bandits and Book Haram to join or cultist which they outrightly rejected.
According to Isah, he got to know the former desk officer in the Federal Character Commission, Kolo Haruna through the driver of Taraba state commissioner in the Commission, one Gambo Ishahu whom he paid N1m to for onward transmission to Haruna to enable him get a letter of appointment.
The witness further informed the Committee that he had earlier discussed and negotiated with Kolo on the amount of money he can offer for the work, pleading with him for understanding as he could not offer more because of no work for a long time after he graduated from the university.
He explained that after a long discussion with Kolo, they finally agreed on instalmental payment, were he single handedly gave Kolo Haruna a sum of N1M Naira, adding that the recipient did not and has never told him that the money is for the Chairman of the Commission or any other person in the Commission.
Isah during interrogation by some lawmakers informed that he has never interface with the Chairman of FCC on the matter or any other principal officer at the establishment even as he emphasized during the hearing that Haruna Kolo did not tell him that the money was’for the FCC Chairman.
According to the witness, he was aware that several people were paying to get work and appointment letters at the commission but because he wanted to’play safe, he wanted to have some measures of security before parting ways with his hard-earned money.
The witness further told the lawmakers that he wanted some kind of security so that incase of an eventuality, he will have somebody to hold responsible for his money, adding that he was afraid of dealing with those outside the commission but wanted to deal with an insider or a staff of the Commission.