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Fred Itua, Abuja
Over one month after the leadership of the Senate was enmeshed in employment mess, there is another brewing scandal in the upper legislative chamber.
The Red Chamber said there was nothing wrong in putting up a system that allows lawmakers to source for jobs for their constituents through a particular committee.
Chairman of the Committee on Federal Character and Intergovernmental affairs, Danjuma La’ah, confirmed yesterday that his panel is the conduit being used to share jobs that are been sourced by the Senate.
Speaking with newsmen at the National Assembly, La’ah stated: “There is nothing wrong in senators approaching the committee on Federal Character and inter governmental affairs to seek job placement for their unemployed constituents.
“It is normal for colleagues (Senators) to come to our committee because it is a better way to go about it. What our committee will do is to ensure that all senatorial districts are equally captured in whatever arrangement that come up. It is not as if we are giving out letters of employment to anyone now.
“What I’m saying is that if any senator approaches us and there is an opportunity, we would help. The senators are coming to us because we are the only committee to ensure even spread in terms of federal appointment.”
He said the Senate has been inviting Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for questioning on their recruitment processes.
“The MDAs have been honouring our invitations to explain the recruitment exercises they carried out. We have told them to adhere strictly to the federal character principles. We have also told them to always carry the Federal Character Commission along before they finalise any internal recruitment,” he added.
As soon as the National Assembly was inaugurated, the Senate was enmeshed in a serious recruitment scandal in which its leadership was accused of having diverted over 100 job slots from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
As senators protested the skewed sharing of the slots, Ahmad Lawan’s leadership was said to have directed the Federal Character Committee to initiate moves with other MDAs to source job slots for subsequent sharing among lawmakers. It was learnt that so far every senator has benefited at least three such job slots through the La’ah committee.
Ironically, La’ah’s committee recently threatened to investigate the job recruitment scandal that rocked the Senate and said it would sanction defaulting agencies. The lawmaker had equally boasted that he would not succumb to any pressure from the Senate leadership to soft pedal on the investigation.
La’ah had promised that there would be no sacred cows saying: “I don’t care who they have given job slots to. Is it the leadership that will give them the backing? The leadership knows that I am capable of doing my job. That is why they gave me that responsibility.
“I am using my sense to fish out the bad elements. It is not a leadership directive. There are rules and regulations guiding us as a committee. The affected agencies should present themselves for clearance because I will not take it easy. Our people have suffered in bondage for long.
“I am not aware that any agency gave out employment slots to the Senate. The leadership has not told us that they received any slot. So, who did they give? As the chairman of this committee, who is also representing Kaduna South, I was not in any way aware that we have been given any employment slots. So, we are going ahead with our probe. I have taken it upon myself that I will probe deeply into the agencies’ claims and carry out an extensive investigation. We are going to expose all those that are tarnishing the image of the Federal Government. We are aware that some of the agencies are selling the employment slots at their disposal.”
