Imminent trouble is looming in the Senate over alleged job racketeering by some senators across the various standing committees.
The affected senators are alleged to have been given job slots by some agencies of government which is making the Senate committee charged with the responsibility of ensuring that employment and job recruitment strictly complies with the federal character principle as enshrined in the Constitution vowing to expose the beneficiaries of the job racketeering wherever they may exist.
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Danjuma La’ah, (PDP Kaduna South), when alerted that beneficiaries may influence the Senate leadership to stop the investigation being conducted by his committee, stated that the committee had taken it upon itself to expose the promoters and beneficiaries of the racket.
He told journalists at the National Assembly on Tuesday that the investigation would be carried out and concluded properly no matter whose ox was gored.
“I don’t care who they have given job slots to. Is it the leadership that will give them the backing? The leadership knows that I am capable of doing my job; that is why they gave me that responsibility.
“I am using my sense to fish out the bad elements. It is not a leadership directive. There are rules and regulations guiding us as a committee. The affected agencies should present themselves for clearance because I will not take it easy. Our people have suffered in bondage for long.
“I am not aware that any agency gave out employment slot to the Senate. The leadership has not told us that they receive any slot. So, who did they give? As the Chairman of this Committee, who is also representing Kaduna South, I was not in any way aware that we have been given any employment slot. So we are going ahead with our probe.
“I have taken it upon myself that I will probe deeply into the agencies’ claims and carry out an extensive investigation. We are going to expose all those that are tarnishing the image of the federal government.”
La’ah revealed that it has come to the knowledge of the committee that some agencies sell single employment slot for as high as N1.5 million.
“We are aware that some of the agencies are selling the employment slots at their own disposal. They are commercialising employment, selling a single slot for as much as N1.5 million when we have children who have graduated from tertiary institutions who could not get any job for many years.”
