Senate Minority Whip, Darlington Nwokocha (LP, Abia), had raised a point of order that after Mr Keyamo's screening, be stepped down to allow investigation into his conduct during the investigation into the N52 billion Special Public Works Programme of the federal government in 2020.
Festus Keyamo, a ministerial nominee from Delta State, has apologised to the National Assembly for ignoring the summons of its committees while serving as minister of state for labour and employment in the last administration.
He tendered the apology at the resumption of screening on Monday after the Senate had moved to suspend his screening and confirmation.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that the Senate paused his screening following a motion moved by Darlington Nwokocha (LP, Abia), who had raised a point of order that Mr Keyamo's screening he stepped down to allow investigation into his conduct during the investigation into the N52 billion Special Public Works Programme of the federal government in 2020.
"I want to bring to the notice of this chamber that sometime in 2020, an issue came up, and that issue was the public work programme. We all welcomed it with open arms-then it is N20,000 to 1,000 persons in every local government.
"At a point, we wanted to carry out our responsibility. At that point, we invited the nominee (Keyamo) to tell us his side, what happened? What are the indices used to determine the selection? He told us in public that we wanted to hijack the process. That we are corrupt. When we asked him, he said, "The people are not from the moon", which is very arrogant. What happened to the N52 billion? He has to tell us, but not here. We should step down his nomination," he said.
The motion, seconded by Eyinnanya Abaribe, later caused a rowdy session on the floor of the Senate.
Subsequently, the Senate moved into a closed-door session following the impasse on the floor.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, reportedly dashed to the Villa while the closed-door session was in progress. He arrived at the Villa at about 2.55 p.m., nearly one hour after the Senate went into a closed-door session to discuss Mr Keyamo's fate.
Upon the resumption of screening after about three hours pause, Mr Keyamo apologised to the lawmakers in his speech. He said the dispute with the committee had already been resolved, noting that it was just a misunderstanding.
"The matter had long been resolved between us and the members of that committee. Subsequently, there were so many other hearings, budget defence, and we attended them under a very convivial atmosphere. The apology is without reservation," Mr Keyamo said.
Apology
Speaking further on the SWP project, he explained that the money was paid to the selected people. He noted that the money was paid directly to them.
"The only thing I need to say--one, when Nigerians hear a figure, their ears go up. Regarding that programme, every single payment, and I insisted to the former president, that it must come directly from the CBN to the account of the people nominated to receive the money.
So, we as ministers - both ministers and the agency that we supervised, never saw one kobo. What we needed to do was to generate the list and pass it to the CBN. The details are at the NDE. I am sorry, I am sorry for that misunderstanding," he said.
Speaking in support of the nominee, Godiya Akwashiki (SDP, Nasarawa), who chaired the Senate Committee on Labour in the 9th Assembly, said the matter was resolved then, saying Mr Keyamo attended several other committee invitations afterwards.
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"He later came to me and asked the Senate to submit their list, but by then, the thing had scattered. He appeared before the committee for budget defence sessions," he said.
Consequently, the senate president directed the Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, to move a motion for the Senate to accept the apology. He added that the Senate reserves the power to investigate the implementation of the project.
The motion was adopted, and consequently, Mr Keyamo was granted a permit to exit the chamber.
Mr Keyamo is the second nominee to apologise to the Senate over past comments and actions.
On Saturday, a nominee from Ogun State, Bosun Tijani, apologised to the Senate after several old tweets were dug up during his screening.
