Senate: Lawan Under Fire Over FIRS Jobs Scam

By Fola James

The Senate is under fire. Some senators are threatening to bring the roof of the red chamber down over allege job scam involving President Ahmed Lawan , Ovie Omo-Agege, deputy Senate President and other principal officers.

This is the first leadership crisis since Lawan emerged Senate President in June this year.

Some senators have accused their leaders of appropriating job slots from top government agencies for their family members and constituency alone.

The Senate is currently investigating allegation that government agencies such as the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS have secretly been recruiting.

Other federal agencies mentioned in the allege scam are the NDLEA, National Space Research Development Agency, Federal Civil Service Commission and the National Open University of Nigeria, NOUN.

“How can some persons decide to appropriate over 100 job slots from an agency of government without thinking of other senators. We also have people from our constituency looking for jobs. Everything must be done in openness and fairness,” an aggrieved senator from the south west told the magazine on Tuesday.

Other senators who spoke with the magazine said their worry is that the vacancies were not advertised according to the public service law.

Since the allege secret recruitment is believed to have favoured some sections of the country, the Federal Character law has also been violated, other angry senators told the magazine

Over 100 vacancies from the FIRS alone were said to have been filled in the last three months by family members and relations of Senator Lawan and other top notch in the senate.

Sources told the magazine that these agencies are doing this to soften the ground for them when they face the senators for their budget defense.

Meanwhile, the Senate has disclosed that it’s aware of plans by some federal agencies to shun ongoing investigation over the secret recruitment.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Character, Danjuma La’ah, told journalist in Abuja on Tuesday that the agencies consider the investigation a waste of time.

According to him, he was aware that some agencies  had been  boasting that nothing would come out of the probe because they had allegedly reached out to the leaders of the Senate..

La’ah said, “We are hearing that some agencies will not honour our invitation because they have connection with the Senate leadership.  I am not aware that any agency gave out employment slots to the Senate.

“The leadership has not told us that they received any slot.

“As the chairman of this committee, who is also representing Kaduna South,  I am  not in any way aware that we have been given any employment slots, so we are going ahead with our probe.

He explained that his committee will get to the bottom of the scam “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.”

Critics, however warned that nothing is likely to come out of the probe considering that the leadership of the senate is involved in the matter.