The House of Representatives on Thursday began an
investigation into the alleged “secret” recruitment of
909 employees by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The controversial recruitment was reportedly carried out
by the apex bank on the directive of the Governor, Mr.
Godwin Emefiele, with a reasonable number of the
beneficiaries being children and relatives of highly-
placed persons in the country.
At a session presided over by the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu
Dogara, in Abuja, the House asked its Committees on
Federal Character, Banking/Currency to complete the
investigation within three weeks.
An All Progressives Congress lawmaker from Kano
State, Mr. Aliyu Madaki, had drawn the attention of the
House to the recruitment under “matters of urgent
public importance.”
Madaki noted that there were no prior notifications on
the recruitment through advertisements to give all
Nigerians the opportunity to apply.
He recalled that in 2015, there were speculation that the
apex bank conducted secret recruitment, but that the
bank quickly denied it.
Madaki added that the latest development only
confirmed that indeed the bank carried out the
recruitment.
He stated, “The recruitment by the CBN is in breach of
the Federal Character Principle as enshrined in the 1999
Constitution (as amended).
“The recruitment breached Section 14(1); 14(3); and
Section 17(1) of the constitution.
“There was no fairness, no justice in this exercise
conducted by the CBN.”
Lawmakers did not debate the motion before passing it
in a unanimous voice vote.
Dogara had overruled any debate on the issue on the
grounds that it could pre-judge the outcome of the
investigation.
“This is an investigation; let us not allow any debate so
that we won’t pre-empt the outcome”, he added.
The Punch
0 comments:
Post a Comment