The Senate, on Tuesday, asked the Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Productivity, Festus Keyamo, to recuse himself from the implementation of the 774,000 special works scheme.
The Senate insisted that the implementation of the scheme remained under the purview of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).
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This followed a motion by Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central).
The Red Chamber said N52 billion was appropriated for the NDE to implement the programme.
It, therefore, asked the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Productivity to stick to its supervisory role.
“The appropriation of 52 billion for the 774,000 public works scheme is vested in the NDE and therefore must be implemented accordingly while acknowledging the supervisory role of Ministry of Labour, Employment and Productivity,” the Senate said in its resolution.
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, in his closing remarks, said the National Assembly still stands on the fact and the law that NDE is entirely responsible for the implementation of the programme.
“The ministry has a supervisory role and the National Assembly has the oversight function,” Lawan said.
He assured that the National Assembly would oversight the scheme very closely to the benefit of Nigerians.
Keyamo is having a running battle with the National Assembly over the composition of committee to implement the 774,000 public works scheme of the federal government.
The legislators ordered that the implementation process be halted until further notice but Keyamo, last week, said President Muhammadu Buhari gave him the go ahead to continue to implementation of the scheme.
He is, however, yet to respond to this latest directive from the National Assembly.
