Date: 2021-02-05

Twenty out of the 37 commissioners wrote a petition against the FCC Executive Chairman accusing her of carrying out a secret recruitment and giving majority slots to her kinsmen.

The Management of the Federal Character Commission (FCC) on Thursday in Abuja cleared the air on the allegations levelled against the commission`s Executive Chairman, Muheeba Dankaka.

Twenty out of the 37 commissioners wrote a petition against Mrs Dankaka, accusing her of carrying out a secret recruitment and giving majority slots to her kinsmen from Kwara State.

The 20 aggrieved commissioners, in their petition, alleged that Mrs Dankaka unilaterally recruited 22 employees out of which 11 of were from her senatorial district in Kwara State.

They alleged this was a breach of the FCC Act and, therefore, requested the intervention of The Presidency.

Briefing the journalists on the allegations, FCC most Senior Director, Vincent Onobun, expressed worry over the incident as he noted that it was negatively affecting the workers performance.

"For some days, the commission was brought to the public domain through allegations on issues ranging from rule of law, due process, guidelines and extant circulars.

"With due respect, the allegations have been written without thorough understanding by the petitioners of the working of government and the guiding rules governing it.

"We are trying to respond to all the allegations that are trending because we are greatly affected by the negative publicity of the incident," Mr Onobun said.

He said the FCC Fifth Board led by Mrs Dankaka assumed office in July 2020 after inauguration by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He pointed out that Mr President`s directive to Mrs Dankaka was clear and that is to uphold the tenets of fairness, justice and equity.

Mrs Onobun said the president's directive is encapsulated in the FCC Establishment Act.

Allegations

Speaking further on the recruitment, Mr Onobun explained that the board on assumption of office in July 2020 cancelled the employment which was carried out without due process by her predecessor.

Mrs Dankaka said Mr Onobun, has not conducted any recruitment exercise.

He listed some of the controversial areas to include duty allowance, waivers not to advertise, award of N35 million contracts, stepping down of contracts, among others.

"The commission and indeed Nigeria runs Economic Growth Recovery Plan (EGRP), therefore, the issue of the alleged N35 million contracts is part of the rolling plan that commenced in 2018 for which a release was expected in 2019.

"In fact, this was before the new chairmen resumed. Our books are open and anyone in doubt can take the liberty of cross checking these facts," Mr Onobun explained.

(NAN)