The senators said none of their constituents benefited from the programme coordinated by the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo.
The Senate Public Account Committee has begun a probe into the Special Public Works programme coordinated by the National Directorate of Employment in 2020.
In 2020, the Nigerian government earmarked N52 billion for the Special Public Works Programme – to recruit 1,000 young Nigerians from each of the 774 local governments for three months and pay them N20,000 each. They passed a resolution that put the NDE as the implementing agency and accused Mr Keyamo of plans to sabotage it from the agency.
Rivers senator, George Sekibo, told the panel that nobody was selected among the constituents he nominated for employment.He complained that all names submitted by the federal lawmakers, who are the real representatives of the people, were not considered.