Executive Chairman, Federal Character Commission, Dr. Muheeba Farida Dankaka
By Our Reporter
The Executive Chairman, Federal Character Commission, Dr. Muheeba Farida Dankaka is currently running from pillar to post to ensure she’s not relieved of her job. This is becuase investigations have commenced in earnest into the allegations of fraud levelled against her.
It would be recalled that members of the Federal Character Commission (FCC) levelled allegations of corrupt practices, abuse of office, subversion of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), FCC (Establishment Act), rules for plenary 2015, and illegal arrogation of powers against her.
The members known as Concerned Commissioners forwarded a petition to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
The duo of Mr. Augustine Wokocha and AbdulWasiu Bawa-Allah, who signed the petition on behalf of their colleagues, noted that since they assumed duty, the Chairman has been committing one form of grave infractions or the other, while also disregarding their advice and cautions to her.
“We gathered that one of the malfeasances, perhaps the most egregious is her unilateral decision to employ 22 people of whom 50% of them are not only from her State, but from her senatorial district,” they said.
The Commissioners’ representatives, added that Dankaka also awarded the sum of N35,706,002, to a contractor for a media advert, which was over and above the budgetary provision of N7,409,534 for publicity and advertisement.
They said: “Even the content of the media advert was shallow and thereby require a thorough investigation to determine the actual cost expended on the advert.”
According to Wokocha and Bawa-Allah, the job racketeering status for which their Commission is known for is well and alive, especially with the indiscriminate granting of waivers by Dankaka to advertise to MDAs, hence shunning the principle of federal character.
“…In a flagrant disobedience to this guideline, which is criminal in the Commission Act for anyone who flouts it, the Chairman is well known to liaise directly with CEOs, sort things out with them, granting waiver and certificate of compliance without recourse to the Commission, as enshrined in Rule 28 of the Rules for Plenary 2015, and thereby creates injury to many job seekers and in the process build animosity among Nigerians,” they said.
In related development, the Youths and Leadership Initiative Group (LYGEL) has accused Hajia Dankaka of certificate forgery.
The Director, Legal and Compliance of the group Olalekan Oladapo in a press conference with journalists in Abuja accused Dr. Muheeba of discrepancy in her Master’s Degree certificate.
He said ‘‘Dr MUHEEBA FARIDA DANKANKA is the official name by which the present chairman of the FCC goes. A critical analysis and systematic review of the certified true copies of the credentials she submitted to the senate for her screening would reveal that this name by which the FCC chairman goes is at variance with the names on the documents she presented which are different and irreconcilable with each other.
The name on the master’s degree certificate obtained from Ahmadu Bello University which she presented to the senate reads”MUUIBAT ADENIKE SALAWU”,No doubt,this is different from and grossly irreconcilable with the official name of the FCC chairman “Dr MUHEEBA FARIDA DANKANKA’’.
Reacting to the allegation, Hajia Dankaka said that she obtained the Master’s degree in 1989 before she got married which necessitated the change of name.
