Crisis brewing at FCC as commissioners disown chairman

.Lawmakers summon DG Budget Office, HoCSF

Jonas Ezieke, Abuja

Chairman and Commissioners of the Federal Character Commission Headquarters Abuja Nigeria’s capital may be heading for a heavy showdown owing to the revelations emanating from the ongoing investigation by the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Alleged Mismanagement of the  Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System IPPIS on Wednesday

At the resumed hearing of the probe panel investigating all federal ministries, departments and tertiary Institutions, a total of 34 Commissioners out of the 37 Commissioners representing all the states said that the chairman is running the agency like a sole administrator.

The Ad-hoc Committee chaired by Hon.Yusuf Adamu Gagdi had on Tuesday summoned the Chairman of the Commission and all other commissioners to appear unfailingly today to shed light on the matter under probe by the Committee.

At the hearing, Commissioners representing states including Abdulrazak Adeoye (Osun), Moses Ayogu (Ebonyi), Hadiza Usman Muazu (Kaduna), Mohammed Tijjani (Bauchi) and Obong Ekpan (Akwa-Ibom) et al accused the chairman of many of the allegations being investigated by the panel including employment racketeering.

They alleged that all 34 out of the 37 Commissioners had made frantic efforts to call the chairman to order to buy she had consistently rebuffed the initiative and had been administering the agency like a sole administrator.

They also alleged she wrote a letter to all the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies MDAs to ask them to interface with her directly adding that non of the circulars issued by the Chairman since the past three years had passed through due process.

But the Chairman while responding to the allegations by the commissioners to the House panel said that the allegation is baseless and is an attempt to smite her reputation by the commissioners.

She also said that some of the commissioners are out to make money illegally from the commission and when she refused to play ball, they decided to conspire against her by the allegations.

She added that the Commission is administered on the basis of committees constituted by her and there are 37 committees representing each of the states of the federation which each commissioner is in charge.

The Chairman however stunned the probe panel when she said that some of the documents being requested from her office were removed from it before she took over from her predecessor.

In his ruling after taking responses from other committee members, Hon.Gagdi said that the chairman should specify the missing documents in a memorandum to be sent to the committee latest on Friday, July 28,2023.

He also summoned the Director-General Budget Office of the Federation Ben Akabueze, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation Folashade Yemi-Esan and Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission FCSC Sule Katagum to appear unfailingly before the committee on Thursday, July 27, 2023 at 11:00 am