774,000 Jobs: Drama As Senators, Reps Order Keyamo Out Of Committee Session

It was a dramatic scene on Tuesday as some members of the National Assembly walked the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr Festus Keyamo SAN, out of the committee session they were having. 

The federal lawmakers had invited Keyamo to give details of the Special Public Works Programme where 774,000 people would be recruited by the Federal Government under the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).

During the meeting which was held at the National Assembly in Abuja, members of the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Labour sought to know how a 20-man committee from each state for the programme would be selected. 

Subsequently, a heated argument ensued between committee members and Keyamo over who should helm the programme which was to be domiciled under the NDE.

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As the rowdy session continued, the committee decided to go into a closed-door session to further discuss the matter, but the Minister refused, insisting that the deliberations should continue in the presence of journalists.

This enraged the lawmakers who asked the Minister to apologise to the committee, but he stood his ground.  Thereafter, Keyamo was asked to leave the meeting since he has refused to apologise to the committee members.

The lawmakers claimed that Keyamo has no right to direct the committee on how to conduct its proceedings, Channels TV reports. 

This development comes a day after the Minster inaugurated the 20-member committees in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) by virtual means.

According to him, 1,000 persons would be selected from each of the 774 local government areas in the country to be engaged by the government in the Special Public Works Programme.