How we paid bribes for federal jobs, by applicants…..Guardian

FACTS have continued to emerge as the Senate’s inquiry into the alleged jobs racketeering in the civil service continued Wednesday.

Mrs. Rose Nkarishor Odey and Idachaba Tijani had admitted before the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs at the commencement of a three-day public hearing on the job-for-sale racket on Tuesday to have paid N250,000 each to secure appointments in federal ministries, aided by officials of the said ministries.

The matter, however assumed a different dimension as the Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Deaconess Joan Ayo, told the joint Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs and Employment, Labour and Productivity yesterday that the two employment letters are mere photocopies.

Ayo also informed the joint committee that the said Ahmed Dantanko who allegedly signed the employment letter issued Odey and Tijani was dead. In addition to being dead, Dantanko reportedly left the services of the commission in 2008 and did not attain the rank of director. It was also revealed that the two known job-for-sale racketeers, Juliet Egobunor and Simon Odujebe, fingered by Odey and Tijani, as the masterminds, are on the run.

While Juliet was said to have absconded from duty at the Ministry of Lands and Housing where she works, Odujebe has “jumped bail,” the FCSC boss said.

“There’s no record of the employment of Odey and Tijani anywhere in the FCSC. This has nothing to do with us. If we have apprehended Simon and Juliet, we would have gotten to the end of this case. They are on the run. We have told their ministries that they must produce them. If they can’t, they must produce their next-of-kin because that record must be in their files,” Ayo said.

Testifying before the joint committee Wednesday, Ayo, who had earlier been mandated to unravel the authenticity of the employment letters held by Odey and Tijani, informed the lawmakers that “the commission would have brought the Dantanko before the committee but, unfortunately, he died in an accident last year. He was a civil servant and not a Director. He signed for the then chairman. He was posted out of the commission as a pool officer”.

Tijani on demand, told the Chairman of the joint committee, Senator Dahiru Kuta that a file was opened for him at the ministry and that was all he knew. The young man also claimed ignorance of all the errors in the said letter of employment.

Ayo, however, faulted the process, stressing that it contravenes laid-down civil service procedure of employment. “If the employment was genuine, he would have gone to the Office of the Head of Service; that is where posting is issued. Nobody gets a letter and goes straight to the ministry. As a pool officer, that is not done,” he explained.

She added that investigation at the Commission proved that the employment letters of Tijani and Odey shared similar numbers. “It means that somebody’s employment letter has been photocopied and it was being used over and over again.”

JD:Whilst we were all having fun with the video of “Oga at the top”,I was busy trying to analyse the whole scenario from the perspective of the reason for the interview in the first place.Remember what was being discussed was the fact that innocent young Nigerians had been tricked into paying 400k for non existent jobs at the NSCDC from a supposedly fake website,and when asked what the correct website was, the sectoral commander went into the now common theatrics of what i thought was pretense at not knowing what the website was.I think the man should have been probed further to see if there was some level of connivance from those within on this subject.Is this a racket that enjoys connivance all the way to the “oga at the top”?Lets see if the National assembly can unravel this…..without shooting itself in the foot