The screening of Mr. Festus Keyamo was temporarily suspended as Senate President Godswill Akpabio announced going into closed session to resolve standoff it generated in the senate on Monday.
Senators from Abia state, Darlington Nwokocha and Eyinanya Abaribe had moved a motion, citing section 88B to mandate the Senate to step down the screening of Festus Keyamo for “publicly ignoring summons from the national assembly”.
The Senate went into a rowdy session shortly after the Point of Order raised by Senator Darlington and Seconded by Senator Abaribe was put into vote by the Senate President.
The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele moved a motion that the Senate goes into executive session to resolve the impasse.
This was granted by the Senate President, who adjourned the session into closed-door to reconvene after one hour.
Mr. Keyamo was a former Minister of State for Labour and Productivity under the then administration of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to Nwokocha, who is representing Abia Central Senatorial District, during the Buhari administration, Keyamo was invited to explain a Special Public Works programme but he snubbed the invitation.
The Special Public Works programme was coordinated by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), which was directly under the ministry Keyamo supervised.
The Federal Government had in 2020 earmarked N52 billion for the programme to recruit 1,000 youths from each of the 774 local governments for three months and pay them N20,000 each.
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