Senate silent on alleged involvement in recruitment scandal

The Senate yesterday avoided defending the alleged involvement of its leadership of a job racketeering which a committee had indicted some government agencies.

Chairman on Media and Public Affairs, Adedayo Adeyeye, claimed ignorance of the allegation during the panel’s inaugural meeting in Abuja.

Told that some MDAs had been investigated for ‘shady’ job deals, especially a commendation by a “group in the Senate President’s constituency for getting 26 slots of the 100 jobs”, Adeyeye stated: “I am supposed to give you facts and honestly, I am just hearing about this matter. I will need to investigate, make appropriate contact with the committee, get the gist of their investigation and also meet with leadership of the Senate.

“Until then, I can’t say anything about it. I don’t want to tell you what isn’t correct.”

Asked further if he was trying to hold brief for his ‘indicted’ colleagues, Adeyeye insisted he was not aware of any deals with federal agencies.

Accused of parrying questions, he said: “It is not correct. I told you I haven’t been in Abuja. I haven’t been around for some time.

“In fact, I wanted the media to be briefed on Tuesday, I ran helter-skelter to get committee members to do the briefing on my behalf. I haven’t been around.

“I have been so busy that I didn’t have the time to even check my Internet at all. That’s the truth. So, you don’t expect me to come here and give you incorrect information. That’s the truth. I need to conduct my own investigation, find out and brief you on it later.”

On the ‘secrecy’ of committee meetings with MDAs, he noted: “I have said we shall liaise with relevant committees of the Senate to make sure that they allow proper coverage of their activities.

“I just finished a meeting of another committee on budget defence, and honestly, the venue couldn’t accommodate all of us, even a lot of the staff have no where to seat.

“It isn’t that they wanted to conduct budget defence in secrecy.”

Adeyeye assured the media that his committee would liaise with the others to make their findings available to the public

The spokesman said he was going to pass information to chairmen of the various committees for transparency.