By FEMI OGUNSHOLA

Thirteen persons alleged to have been employed by the Federal Character Commission (FCC) into agencies of Federal Government have petitioned the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee investigating job racketeering over unlawful disengagement.

The 13 petitioners accused the Chairman, FCC, Mrs Farida Dankaka, of substituting their names unlawfully.

In the document submitted to the committee and obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the 13 petitioners urged the support of the committee to redress what they called “unjust disengagement”.

The petitioners provided detailed of their names, reference numbers, state and date of appointment.

NAN reports that the 13 of them who alleged they were initially engaged, are from Benue, Kogi, Edo, Osun, Delta, Ondo, Taraba, Kwara among others as seen in the table attached to the document.

Meanwhile, 11 of those said to have been unlawfully engaged in the petition were mainly from of Kwara while the two came from Niger and Kogi states respectively.

The 13vpwtitioners claimed they were legitimately given their letter of appointment on March 30, 2020, adding that this was in addition to obtaining their appointment letter.

They said they were enrolled in the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) on June 2020, and were accordingly paid their first salary on July 2020.

This according to them was after they had complied and satisfied all requirement, adding that, due to the lock down occasioned by COVID-19 it affected all civil servants within grade level 1-12 and they could not resume.

They said they were unable to resume their respective duties in August 2020 when public offices were reopened.

“Suddenly, to our dismay our salaries were not paid in Aug 2020, and when we inquired as to the reasons why our salaries were not paid, we discovered that our names have been unlawfully substituted.

The urged the committee to investigate the petition as presented and asked that justice be done to ensure they were restored to their various positions.

They also demanded that their arrears be paid and a strong and sanctions should be meted on the perpetrators so that such act would not have a place in the country.

The Chairman of FCC in her submission at the investigative hearing had distanced herself from some of the allegations bothering on job racketeering, favouritism among others.

Dankaka said that her attempt to fight corruption in FCC was responsible for the aeries of allegations against her person, adding that, “when you fight corruption, corruption will fight back.”

NAN reports that the ad hoc committee headed by Rep. Yusuf Gagdi is probing employment racketeering and gross mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) by agencies of the Federal Government.

NAN reports that the committee has mandated the chairman of the commission to appear on July 4 with documents to respond to some the allegations against her. (NAN)

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