Lawmakers order Accountant-General to produce IPPIS officer, queries AMCON, budget office
By Usman Ahmed Kanempress
10th August 2023
For its refusal to appear before lawmakers in an ongoing job racketeering probe, the House of Representatives, has on Wednesday, threatened to invoke its constitutional power on the Budget Office and the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON).
The lawmakers ordered the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) to bring along the IPPIS officer before the committee, condemning the absence of an officer of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
Chairman of the ad hoc committee probing employment racketeering, and gross mismanagement of IPPIS in federal ministries, departments and agencies of government, Yusuf Gagdi, issued the threat.
Gagdi wondered why IPPIS, the Budget Office and Haruna Kolo, the prime suspect in the job racketeering saga, were absent at the meeting, saying attempt by the concerned parties to run away would be resisted.
“I also don’t know why Kolo is not coming back to appear before this committee; he seems to have absconded. I will sign a letter to AMCON to produce Kolo on Thursday,”
Gagdi ordered.
“It is better he listens to us, unless he is acting a script and selling lies to us; he should come, so we can interact with him. We owe everybody the duty of care. We need him by 10:00 a.m., tomorrow. The clerk of the committee should call AMCON on the phone and tell them to produce Kolo, or do they know what Kolo is hiding?”
Similarly, a witness in the ongoing investigation on job scam, Abdulrahman Ibrahim, faulted claim by some commissioners at the Federal Character Commission that they had not been given slots since they were appointed.
Ibrahim, a beneficiary of the racketeering and a personal assistant to the commissioner representing Taraba, said: “All the commissioners were given slots.”
Also, Yisha’u Gambo, driver to the commissioner representing Taraba, who spoke in Hausa, said he received N2 million for Kolo, which a job seeker paid.
