N-Power Job Racketeering: Senate President Denies Involvement Allegations

By Akinwale Kasali

The Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan, has denied any involvement in the alleged job Racketeering of the N-Power Programme recruitment by the Federal Government.

Lawan was fingered in the exercise which has become a scandal.

In a  statement by his Media Aide, Ola Awoniyi, he refuted the publication credited to an online news platform, Sahara Reporters, calling on members of the public to completely disregard it.

The statement reads in part:

“The attention of the Office of the Senate President has been drawn to a publication on the Sahara Reporters portal purporting that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management allocated N-Power recruitment slots to the Senate President and other lawmakers.

“We hereby advise members of the public to totally disregard the fake and malicious publication in its entirety as regards the Senate President.”

The statement further said that the media report cannot be relied upon as it failed to provide clear evidence on the trumped allegations against some lawmakers.

“It should be noted that the fairytale only blandly and obliquely claimed that some lawmakers printed out application forms from the portal of the scheme but failed to provide any evidence that this was to fill its speculated allocated slots.

“We wish to stress that neither the Senate President nor this office has anything to do with the purported slots mischievously credited by the publication to the Senate President.

“We urge the media to always strive to be factual in their reports and abide strictly by the ethics of their profession which require them to hear from all sides and objectively establish the facts, especially before publishing accusations capable of damaging the reputation of public officials.”