CHRIS Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Productivity has apologised to the leadership of the National Assembly on behalf of Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State over a recent disagreement over the 774,000 job recruitment programme.
Charles Akpan, the Deputy Director of Media in the Ministry of Labour confirmed the report to The ICIR on Tuesday in a telephone conversion.
“Yes, the reports are true, I am aware he (Ngige) was in a meeting with the National Assembly and he must have apologised on his (Keyamo) behalf,” said Akpan.
Ngige was reported to have visited the leadership of the National Assembly and offered apology on behalf of Keyamo who had accused the lawmakers of attempt to take over the recruitment process while the lawmakers walked him out of an investigative panel, alleging that he wanted to dictate to them.
Ngige, according to reports, pleaded with the National Assembly to forgive the Minister of State and allow the ministry and the lawmakers to work together.
The National Assembly had called for the suspension of the recruitment because the Minister of State failed to explain the modalities for the recruitment.
However, in his defense, Keyamo said ‘he was walked out’ by the lawmakers because he did not allow them to control the process of recruitment.
President Muhammadu Buhari had initiated the recruitment of 774,000 Nigerians for the Special Public Works programme under the National Directorate of Employment to cushion the effect of COVID-19 pandemic across the 774 local governments in the nation.
The programme was scheduled to take off in October and would have the employed youths earn N20,000 as their monthly salary for three months.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94