The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo SAN has said that there was no corruption in the recruitment of 774,000 Nigerians under the Special Public Works (SPW) scheme.
According to The Cable, the minister said this on Thursday while reacting to comments from members of the Senate Committee on Public Account that no member of their constituencies benefitted from the scheme.
Announcing it was launching a probe into the scheme, the committee directed the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to submit a list of beneficiaries across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) within two weeks.
The Federal Government had created the SPW scheme to, among others, alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the citizenry.
Coordinated by the NDE, the SPW scheme was mandated to recruit 1,000 persons from each of the 774 local government areas of the country.
Reacting to the committee’s demand for a comprehensive list of beneficiaries, Keyamo said there was no corruption involved in the recruitment.
He noted that the beneficiaries were not from the moon but regular Nigerians.
The minister assured that the NDE would supply the list as demanded.
“I think they have asked the NDE to produce the register, so, they should wait. Can they conclude before seeing the register? they gave two weeks, the response would be made available to everyone including the press.
“The NDE will give every evidence, so, follow it up with the NDE, they are there to give all the reports, all the processes, so follow it up on the committee so we don’t talk outside the committee.
“There was no corruption at all. When you go there, they will make everything available. The people who were chosen are Nigerians too, they’re not from moon, and they are not from Cameroon. So, it will be made available to everybody, so just follow it up from there. The NDE is in charge, they will include every evidence and all the documents,” TheCable quoted Keyamo to have said.