Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo made good his threat to resist the ministry’s pet project, Special Public Work Programme being hijacked by politicians. The Minister on Tuesday insisted that journalists must cover proceedings of his meeting with the combined Senate and House of Representatives Labour Committee.
His request angered the lawmakers as they walked the Minister of out of the meeting.
The lawmakers had invited Keyamo to give details of the Special Public Works Programme where 774,000 people would be recruited by the Federal Government under the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).
During the meeting which held at the National Assembly in Abuja, members of the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Labour sought to find out the method of selection of a 20-man committee from each state for the programme.
However, a heated argument erupted between committee members and Keyamo over who should helm the programme which was to be domiciled under the NDE.
As the rowdy session ensued, the committee decided to go into a closed-door session to discuss the matter, but the minister refused, insisting that the further discussions be held in the presence of journalists.
This enraged the lawmakers who told Keyamo to apologise to the committee, but he ignored them.
Thereafter, the minister was asked to leave the meeting since he has refused to apologise to the committee members.
The lawmakers claimed that Keyamo has no right to direct the committee on how to conduct its proceedings.
