Senate: Foreign prisoners employed as construction workers in Nigeria

•Tackles minister over abuse of quota system

From Fred Itua, Abuja

Senators has alleged that prisoners from some foreign countries were working in Nigeria in construction companies owned by expatriates.

The senators, who are members of Interior Committee, made the allegations during the budget defence of the Ministry of Interior in Abuja.

Chairman of the Committee, Adams Oshiomhole who spoke on behalf of other lawmakers, frowned at the practice and insisted that the practice must stop.

“Your ministry needs to regulate issuance of the quotas very well as i have on good authority that prisoners from foreign land are working in Nigeria as construction workers.

“This is even different from the age long fraud the oil companies have been carrying out in the country through the policy of expatriate quotas by making our own qualified engineers to work under foreign technicians.

“Many non Nigerians are in the country, some of them live inside containers. I even believe and dare say it that there are foreign prisoners who are working in Nigeria. They were shipped to our country to serve their prison terms.

“They were being paid according to their country’s minimum wage by the construction industry that brought them. I don’t want to mention the company’s name but if I am provoked, I will mention them.

“Honourable Minister, this is a serious issue, prisoners are not expected to work in their countries if the product or whatever they engage in is meant to be exported.”

This is coming even as the Ministry of Interior has surpassed its budgetary target of N600 million revenue from issuance of expatriate quotas in the 2023 fiscal year by raking in, N1.195 billion from January to October this year.

The National Assembly, however, through joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Interior, took up the ministry on issuance of the expatriate quotas, which it believed, served as avenue for stealing jobs from Nigerians in Nigeria by expatriates.

Minister of the Ministry, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo in his presentation to the joint Committee, in 2022 and outgoing 2023 fiscal years, said the Ministry surpassed its budgetary revenue projections on expatriate quotas and marriage.

He specifically submitted to the Committee that in 2023 , while N600 million was targeted as revenue to be generated from issuance of expatriate quotas to deserving foreign firms in the country , N1.195 billion , has as at October 31, 2023, generated from it.

“Aside the projected revenue from expatriate quotas that had been surpassed by about N600 million extra, the N380 million projected revenue from marriage, has also been surpassed by over N500 million with N892.774 million realised as at October 31, 2023.”