COVER
Job Racketeering: HoSF Indicts IPPIS Desk Officers of Fraud in MDAs
By Ubong Ukpong, Abuja
Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF) Mrs Folashade Esan, on Monday, indicted desk officers of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), of perpetrating fraud in recruitment exercises.
She, however, denied getting 10 per cent job slots from MDAs.
Esan said this when she appeared before the House of Representatives committee investigating job racketeering in MDAs and mismanagement of IPPIS in Abuja on Monday.
She said many MDAs violated waivers in job recruitment, adding that she also discovered that some IPPIS staff were perpetrating evil in MDAs.
She said once the HoSF discovered such foul play in enrollment, it immediately informed the ICPC.
She said aside reporting such officers, the HoSF immediately swung into action by commencing disciplinary action against those officers, adding that several officers had been disciplined for perpetrating such.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Rep. Wole Oke (PDP-Osun), a member of the committee, had posed a question to the HoSF, asking if it was true that the HoSF got 10 per cent of job recruitment allocation from MDAs.
Esan had also Responded that: “I want to categorically state that the HoSF renders service to MDAs and we do not request such a percentage from any MDA.”
“The first time I heard it, I asked the director in charge that I must not hear such a thing any longer and that if they were doing it before I came, it must not happen again.
On the issue of waiver for employment, Esan said the HoSF often went round to monitor such, noting that though the HoSF could not be in every establishment, it ensured proper monitoring.
“All we do is to monitor to ensure they have not exceeded waiver. We ensure that IPPIS does not enroll unless they have approval from the Federal Character Commission, HoSF and the Budget office,’’ she said.
“Some MDAs are in the habit of employing more than the waiver given, but the HoSF always ensures that it is difficult to enroll them on IPPIS as a mechanism to checkmate such MDAs.
“Many agencies have violated waivers and we have discovered that some IPPIS staff are perpetrating evil in the MDAs.
“Once we discovered foul play in the enrollment we informed ICPC and started disciplinary action against those officers.
“We have several officers that we have disciplined for perpetrating fraud in MDAs,’’ she said.
She said when the HoSF gave universities a waiver for recruitment, it often discovered that school usually prioritised non-academic above academic staff.
She added that the National University Commission agreed with her that such instance was becoming a big problem.h
Consequently, the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating job racketeering in Ministries, Departments and Agencies, summoned past secretary of the Federal Character Commission (FCC) over missing documents in connection with recruitment details.
Also summoned include IPPIS desk officer in the commission, Mr Haruna Kolo over allegation bothering on job racketeering.
Rep. Yusuf Gagdi, the chairman of the ad hoc committee issued the summoned in Abuja on Monday.
He said the committee would stop at nothing from getting the job done by engaging relevant agencies mentioned in the job racketeering.
“We have a factual petition against all the agencies called regarding 10 per cent collection of job racketeering.”
In his desire to get the necessary documents to further its investigation, the FCC chairman, Mrs Farida Dankaka and the incumbent Secretary, said they could not access it.
Disturbed by the revelation that some document regarding the number of jobs provided so far from 2018 till date could not be found, the chairman of the committee demanded the past secretary of the commission to provide the documents.
According to him, the past Secretary of FCC should be invited as to why documents are not found in FCC. we have admitted some document submitted earlier now we need the remaining documents.
He directed that Kolo and the Director of IPPIS should appear before the panel on Aug 4.
Rep Wole Oke (PDP-Osun) a member of the committee said, ” you have a secretary in the commission and a chairman, there is no way they will tell us that the documents in their kitty are not available.
“The former chairman and the secretary should be invited to this place and provide details of document said not to be available. “
According to her, FCC has approval for jobs from Head of Service of the Federation and the process has commenced and 85 people have been recruited.
NAN reports that this is contrary to the FCC chairman earlier claimed that she had not recruited from 2020 till date but the payroll submitted to the committee proved her wrong.
She however, said that the process of recruitment had not been completed because the beneficiaries names and other details have not been sent to IPPIS.
“We got the approval before and we have not uploaded it; we are waiting for the head of service. We have not taken them to IPPIS because the process is still on.”
On the issue Kolo alleged to be her Personal Assistant, the FCC chairman said, “Kolo has been in the system for long and he is the IPPIS desk officer in our office. My signature was forged to give jobs, Kolo is not my SA or PA,”.
All is now set for the Edo State gubernatorial election tomorrow. The off-cycle election will take place across all the local government areas. There are 17 political parties on the ballot.
The people of Edo State will decide on the ballot who will be Governor Godwin Obaseki’s successor.
The winner of the election replaces Obaseki in the Dennis Osadebe House on Nov. 11.The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it is set for the election.
According to the electoral umpire, 2,249,780 registered voters, representing 85.57 percent of the 2,629,025 total registered voters have collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) across 4,519 polling units in the state’s 18 local government areas.Out of the 17 candidates in the race, three are in focus: Asuerinme Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party.
Ighodalo is a 64-year-old economist, lawyer, and politician from Okaigben, Ewohimi, in Esan South East local government. He is former chairman of Sterling Bank. He served on the economic teams of both former Governor Adams Oshiomhole and the outgoing governor, Obaseki.
Okpebholo is a 54-year-old businessman and politician from the Udomi-Uwessan community in Irrua. He has a background in Business Administration and a Master’s in Policy and Leadership Studies.
Akpata is a 51-year-old lawyer from Edo South Senatorial District. As the first non-Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 28 years to be elected president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Akpata offers an alternative to the APC and PDP political dominance.
One thing that has trailed preparations for the election is fear of security breaches.
Last week, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun announced the deployment of 35,000 police personnel to the state for the election.
However, major political parties and actors in the election have been engaging in inflammatory rhetoric, with the PDP refusing to sign the peace accord initiated by the National Peace Committee (NPC).
Yesterday, a civil society organisation called YIAGA Africa identified eight local government areas that could potentially become hotspots during the election.
The local government areas are Ikpoba/Okha, Oredo, Egor, Ovia South West, Ovia North East, Esan South East, Etsako West, and Etsako East.
The civil society warned of a high likelihood that politicians might resort to violence to manipulate the election.
Yesterday, Edo State Government declared today work-free to enable workers and electorate travel to their voting areas ahead of the election.
A statement by Joseph Eboigbe, Secretary to the Edo State Government (SSG), reassured that security measures had been provided to ensure a free, fair, and credible election.
By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has emphasized that it is willing to encourage state owned enterprises to list on the Nigerian Exchange in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
Disclosing this in an interview in Abuja yesterday, the Director General of SEC, Dr.
Emomotimi Agama said listing their securities would lead to democratization of their operations, inclusiveness and wealth creation for Nigerians.He said, “Inclusivity is very critical because in inclusivity, you have ownership. And so we all build our industries and the country together.
“For us at SEC, we would provide incentives that will encourage as much as possible, these state owned enterprises to list.
“You know that beside the incentives, one of the things that we at the SEC will continue to do is to educate those that are managing these institutions, to get them to understand that listing of those institutions does not remove power from them. It rather provides bigger power, because united we stand, divided we fall.”
Agama said the commission will continue to provide education, provide incentives and most importantly, make sure that time to market is reduced adding, “providing that certainty, getting them the assurance, knowing fully well that when you want to come to the market, when you decide to come to the market, you are able to follow a calendar, and that calendar is supported by the SEC.”
The DG disclosed that the SEC is also working towards inclusion via technology adding that the use of technology will make the capital market more attractive especially to the younger generation.
“That is why we encourage apps, we encourage FinTech tools, and that is why we supported the launch of the e-offering platform at the Nigerian exchange.
“And we encourage every other one who wants to participate and is qualified to participate in this process, to turn around the way people see investing.
“We want investors to have a beautiful experience. We want them to feel at ease, to make it so easy for them that each time they feel like investing, it brings happiness to them, and we will continue to do that through encouragement of technology, through education and everything that we need to do, incentivizing industries and making sure that bottlenecks are removed and the process of rejuvenating The Nigerian capital market,” he added.
From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
Former Governor of Kogi State Yahaya Bello yesterday honoured the invitation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
A statement from Bello’s Media Office signed by Michael Ohiare said that the decision was made after due consultations with his family, legal team and political allies.
The statement read, “The former governor, who has great respect for the rule of law and constituted authority, had all the while only sought the enforcement of his fundamental rights in order to ensure due process.
“The case has been before a competent court and Alhaji Yahaya Bello had been duly represented by his legal team at every hearing.
“It is important for the former governor to now honour the invitation of the EFCC to clear his name as he has nothing to hide and nothing to fear.
“The former governor believes firmly in the efforts of the administration of President Bola Tinubu to place Nigeria on the path of sustainable economic development and support the fight against corruption in the country.
“It is on record that he was the first Governor of Kogi State to put in place an anti-corruption mechanism to check graft and ensure that the resources of the state work for the people of the state.
“He was accompanied to the EFCC Headquarters by high profile Nigerians.
“It is our hope that the commission will be as professional as necessary and respect his fundamental rights as a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Details of his engagement with the operatives of the anti-graft agency will be disclosed later.”
However, EFCC denied that the former governor was in its custody.
The commission, in a statement by its spokesperson, Dele Oyewale said that Bello remained wanted with a subsisting warrant of arrest.
He said, “Media reports today that a former Governor of Kogi State, Mr. Yahaya Bello is in the holding facility of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC is incorrect.
“The commission wishes to state that Bello is not in its custody.
“Bello, already declared wanted by the commission for alleged N80.2 billion money laundering charges, remains wanted with a subsisting warrant for his arrest.”
Bello was declared wanted after the incumbent governor of Kogi State, Usman Ododo helped the embattled former governor to escape arrest in April.
Ododo’s arrival with heavy security at the residence of the ex-governor in Wuse, Abuja prevented the EFCC men from effecting his arrest.
Ododo’s entourage drove out with Bello in the governor’s car.
Since then, it was said have holed up in the Kogi State Government House, Lokoja.
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