.jpeg)
• Dankaka remains in office despite indicting revelations at Reps inquiry
Tayo Busayo, Abuja
DAILY COURIER - The Federal Government continues to watch as the feud between the Federal Character Commission (FCC) chairman and state Commissioners lingers . Twenty-nine out of the 37 FCC commissioners are seeking the removal of their Executive Chairman, Muheeba Dankaka.
In two separate letters/ petitions to President Bola Tinubu and Secretary to the Government of Federation (SGF) George Akume, the aggrieved commissioners accused Dankaka of high-handedness, victimisation, and disregard for the rule of law.
They claimed that all their efforts to work harmoniously with her have failed.
DAILY COURIER had reported the drama that unfolded at the hearing on Tuesday, July 26, 2023 when some commissioners of the FCC accused Mrs Dankaka of lying to the House about having a doctor’s appointment to avoid appearing before the committee.
The committee then directed the chairperson and all the commissioners to appear before it the following day.
At the resumption of the hearing, some commissioners accused Mrs Dankaka of running a racketeering ring and disregarding the Act establishing the commission.
Moses Anaughe, the commissioner representing Delta State, accused the chairperson of using agents to sell employment slots. He claimed that she sometimes demands 10 per cent of the total vacancies in MDAs.
“Dr Dankaka will request the chief executives to come to her office and discuss 10 per cent. She does collect 10 per cent from all MDAs of all the employment she is signing. All those 10 per cent she is collecting, those are the slots that she employs agents that are selling.
“I have two employment letters here of her children in juicy agencies where the annual salary is N6.1 million; the other is N8.2 million. I have the appointment letters here.
“I just also want to inform this committee if she finds any agency doing employment that is paying more than these MDAs, she will move them to that MDA. She moves them from MDA to MDA,” he said.
Mr Anaughe added that “She has a lot of agents selling slots for her. After selling, they have a central pool where they remit all the monies, whereby they will withdraw and collect USSD and give it to her. I have all the account details here. In my submission, we have a lot of things to reveal.”
Abdulrazak Adeoye, the commissioner representing Osun State, accused Mrs Dankaka of removing people’s names from the payroll and replacing them with others.
“She surreptitiously removed the names of Nigerians from the payroll of FCC and replaced them without the knowledge of most commissioners,” he said.
Similarly, Mamman Alakaye, the commissioner from Nasarawa State, also tendered some documents to the committee, purported to be employment involving Mrs Dankaka’s son.
“Mr Chairman, I want to tender a document to support what my colleagues have said so far. For example, her son was employed at NCC, which I am aware of. Just last week, she transferred him from NCC to Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission. He did his documentation with IPPIS just this week. I have the document to tender,” he said.
But the Commission’s Director of Public Affairs and Communication, Chuks Okoli, denied the alleged rift.
“We have 37 commissioners under the FCC out of which only five are having issues with the chairman. The others are all working in harmony with the commissioner apart from the five,” Okoli said.
In the two s letters/petitions, the 27 commissioners informed the President and the SGF that they had lost confidence in Dankaka’s leadership.
They added that were worried by the negative publicity and wrong public perception her style gave the commission.
The commissioners cited her alleged role in the job racketeering in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) which is being investigated by the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee as a case that put the FCC in a bad light.
The letter to the President is titled ‘Resolutions of the body of Commissioners on the allegations of job racketeering in the Federal Character Commission, among others – Vote of no confidence on the Executive Chairman: Dr. Muheeba Dankaka.’’
A part of it reads: “Without prejudice to the outcome of the ongoing investigation by the House of Representatives Ad hoc committee on the investigation of alleged job racketeering by MDAs, we are deeply concerned by the massive negative publicity and the wrong public perception created on the commission.
“This development is already affecting the efficient and effective discharge of the commission’s mandate. Also taking into cognisance that the majority of the commissioners have lost confidence in the leadership of the executive chairman, there is a critical need for government intervention to rescue the deteriorating situation.
“Considering, therefore, the genuine need to allow for an interference-free investigation into the weighty allegation of job racketeering involving the executive chairman, and constrained by this unfortunate development, the body of commissioners met on Tuesday, 8th August 2023 and resolved to call on government to promptly intervene, pending the outcome of the House Representative committee on job racketeering on-going investigation, to help in restoring the confidence of commissioners, staff, stakeholders and the general public in the commission.”
“In the light of the foregoing, we the undersigned, hereby disassociate ourselves from the alleged job racketeering and other acts of infractions, consequently resolved to pass a vote of no confidence in the leadership of the commission, and as a matter of urgency and utmost concern, seek for an immediate action so as the save commission and, indeed, government from further embarrassment.”
In the second letter to Akume, the commissioners recalled that after his(SGF)call for a harmonious working relationship by all the parties, there has been no change of attitude by the chairman.
The letter by their Chairman, Augustine Wokocha, and Secretary, Abdul Wasiu Bawa-Allah reads in part: “ An illegality of adopting purported plenary minutes was questioned by members upon which the chairman insisted on foisting this on the record of this commission.
“This insistence resulted in the chaos that the meeting degenerated into with the chairman hauling vulgar expletives on those who called for the right thing to be done.
“It is worthy to inform you, Sir, that all memos sent to the Chairman (after your intervention in August 2023) requesting basic and general data on employment have remained unanswered, snubbed, or completely ignored. It is for this reason that commissioners are insistent in upholding the vote of no confidence in the chairman by 29 members out of the 37 members of the commission.”
The commissioners consequently made several demands, including a request that the chairman be asked to step down to facilitate an independent, impartial, and unhindered investigation into the allegations against her.
They said: “In light of the above and the fact that the commission is not functioning in accordance with the law that established it and many other malfeasances of the chairman, and the fact that she has refused to comply with your counsel and directives, even when the olive branch has been extended by Body of Commissioners, We therefore, request that:
"an independent fact-finding panel should be set up to look into the affairs of the commission; all acts of impunity, intimidation, and inequality in the treatment of members who are representatives of the federating units of the nation should be reversed; and after the investigation, any member who is found complicit in the mismanagement of the commission should be sanctioned as a deterrent measure to others now and in the future."
