The Senate on Tuesday frowned at the N4.2 billion appropriated in the 2024 budget as personnel cost for unverifiable workers at the moribund Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited.
The Senate ad-hoc committee had called for an investigative hearing on alleged corruption and inefficiency in Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited and National Iron Ore Mining Company from 2002 to 2024.
The Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Senator Natasha Akpoti – Uduaghan (PDP, Kogi Central) took a swipe at the Sole Administrator of the Steel Company, Summaila Abdul Akaba, on the number of workers collecting salaries from the N4.2 billion appropriated for personnel cost in the 2024 budget.
She said being an indigene of the area desirous to get the Company working, she had made an unscheduled visit to it but couldn’t find 10 people.
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Senator Natasha lamented that despite the huge amount of money spent as personnel cost by the steel company on yearly basis, no steel has been manufactured and no mill rolled.
The female Senator said, “The sole administrator of Ajaokuta Steel Company, I have a good question for you being an indigene of the area. I am very worried about the state of the company and passionate for its revival.
“The sum of N4.2 billion was appropriated for personnel cost in 2024 but from several visits I have made to the complex, hardly were 10 people sighted to be around or doing anything.
“So, who are the workers collecting monthly salaries from the appropriated N4.2 billion? Statistically, if N300,000 is paid to 14, 000 people per month for a year, you will get N4.2 billion or N500, 000 to 8,400 workers per month in a year. Where are the 14, 000 or 8,400 workers in Ajaokuta?”
But the Minority Whip of the Senate who is also a member of the committee, Senator Osita Ngwu (PDP, Enugu West) prevented the sole administrator from responding to Natasha’s poser.
Senator Ngwu said, “Please, don’t let us indict ourselves because the said appropriation was approved by the National Assembly.”
In his closing remarks at the investigative hearing, the Chairman of the ad-hoc committee, Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire (APC, Ondo Central), said presentations and submissions made by the various stakeholders, would be thoroughly looked into, by the committee for a solution report on Ajaokuta Steel Company to the Senate.
Key stakeholders at the investigative hearing were permanent secretary of ministry of mines and steel development, a director from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), a director from Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Nigerian Society of Engineers, Steel and Engineering Union Workers of Nigeria among others.
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