Reps plan to probe MDAs over alleged job racketeering

The House of Representatives yesterday resolved to beam its searchlights on disgruntled officials of federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) who indulge in job racketeering.

Adopting a motion sponsored by Yusuf Adamu at the plenary presided by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, the House resolved to constitute an ad-hoc committee to probe into the issue.

Adamu (Plateau: APC) claimed that he had been inundated with complaints by his constituents that they could not be gainfully employed in the MDAs due to their inability to cough out as high as one million naira as bribe to highly placed government functionaries.

This, he noted, was an indication that the federal character principle was not being adhered to.

He further argued that the practice was in breach of the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy, which seeks to promote the proper exploitation of human resources and the right of citizens to participate in all areas of the economy, including through recruitment in the public and civil service.

He warned that if urgent steps are not taken to investigate and monitor the recruitment, it could result in poor output and performance in the civil and public service, arising from unqualified and poorly motivated workforce.

Among those who spoke in support of the motion were Onofiok Akpan Duke (Akwa Ibom: PDP) who decried the ugly development, adding that the practice was responsible for the denial of the citizenry in his state employment opportunities in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

House Leader, Ado Doguwa, said the probe was long overdue, adding that it behoves on the media to assist the National Assembly members accused as perpetrators of the act to tackle the menace in the interest of the teeming population of unemployed graduates in the country.