Ministerial screening: Keyamo apologises to Senate

• Senate screening degenerated into a rowdy session when Keyamo appeared before the lawmakers
• Nwokocha called for Keyamo’s screening to be stood down over his past attitude
  

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Festus Keyamo (SAN), the Delta State ministerial nominee, has finally apologised to the Senate over his failure to appear before the 9th National Assembly when he served as Minister of State for Labour and Productivity under then President Muhammadu Buhari.

Earlier, the Senate screening degenerated into a rowdy session on Monday, when Keyamo appeared before the lawmakers.

This was after a point of order raised, and motion moved, by Senator Darlington Nwokocha (LP Abia Central).

Nwokocha called for Keyamo’s screening to be stood down over his past attitude towards the National Assembly when he was Minister.

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, then called for a closed session.

Immediately after the session, he dashed to the Villa to see President Bola Tinubu. Thereafter, the screening session continued.

However, it was reconciliation time, as Keyamo apologised to the Senate and explained that the list of the beneficiaries of the N52 billion Public Works scheme was available for scrutiny.

Before he was asked to take a leave of the Senate and go, Keyamo apologised to the Senate and was then asked to go and sin no more.

According to Keyamo “ I apologise to the Senate. I am sorry, I am sorry and I am sorry.”

“Regarding that programme, the account was handled by the World Bank. So, we, the head of the agencies, never saw one kobo. We only generated the list and the money was paid directly to the people’s account.

“Every detail of that account was captured and kept in a file. All the records of the beneficiaries and their data are in the ministry.”

Keyamo, who was nominated at the last minute by President Bola Tinubu, on Friday, appeared before the Senate on Monday, for his ministerial nomination.

Earlier, Darlington Nwokocha ( LP, Abia Central), moved the motion requesting the suspension of the nominee’s screening.

Nwokocha reminded Keyamo of how he insulted the lawmakers from both chambers during his tenure as a minister under the last administration.

He also brought to the fore corruption charges levelled against the nominee and how he ignored the National Assembly summons in 2020 over the employment scheme of 774,000 Nigerians recruited for the special public works programme.