Reps panel reads riot act to CBN over 1000 sacked workers

House of Representatives ad hoc committee probing the retirement of over 1,000 staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has read the riot act to the governor of the apex financial institution, Mr Yemi Cardoso, over his failure to honour its invitation.

At the start of the hearing, yesterday, the Chairman of the committee, Bello Kumo, wondered why the top echelon of the CBN failed to appear to explain the rationale behind the sack of the workers.

Bello, who is also the Chief Whip of the House, also expressed dissatisfaction over the absence of the Labour and Employment Minister, Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi, at the hearing, initially scheduled to hold on Wednesday, but moved to yesterday due to the 2025 budget presentation by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Bello, however, applauded the representative of the Federal Character Commission, who honoured the invitation of the committee. Bello warned that the committee would be left with no choice but to apply the sledge hammer on any erring government functionary that failed to heed to the committee’s invitation on a new date to be communicated to them in due course.

“We are guided by our laws. We will not allow anybody to take us for granted. Let me be clear on this, any day we fix again and any of the organisations that refuses to show up, we will apply the law,” the Gombe-born lawmaker warned.

Earlier, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr Tajudeen Abbas, acknowledged that the impact of the CBN action would be felt by the individual workers affected, their families and the country as a whole.

He charged the committee to do due diligence on ascertaining the formulae used in computing the N50 billion pay off amount to the affected workers and whether the principle of due process was adhered to. He also charged the committee to ensure that the decision to relieve the workers of their jobs aligns with global best practices and extant provisions of the law.