Senate faults N4.2bn salaries for unverified Ajaokuta steel workers

The Senate, on Tuesday, frowned at N4.2bn appropriated in the 2024 budget as personnel cost for unverifiable workers at Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited.

The issue came to the fore during an investigative hearing on alleged corruption and inefficiency in Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited and National Iron Ore Mining Company from 2002 to date, by an Ad-hoc committee of the Senate.

The Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan ( PDP Kogi Central), took up the Sole Administrator of the Steel Company, Summaila Akaba, on a number of workers collecting salaries from the N4.2billion appropriated for personnel costs in the 2024 budget.

She said being an indigene of the area desirous to get the steel company revamped and working, she made unscheduled visits to it and hardly found 10 people.

The lawmaker lamented further that despite such an amount of money being spent on personnel costs, no steel has been manufactured and no mill rolled.

She said, “The sum of N4.2billion was appropriated for personnel cost in 2024, but from several visitations I’ve made to the complex, hardly were 10 people sighted to be around or doing anything.

“So, who are the workers collecting monthly salaries from the appropriated N4.2bn?

“Statistically, if N300,000 is paid monthly to 14, 000 people per month for a year, you get N4.2bn or N500,000 to 8,400 workers per month in a year..

“Where are the 14, 000 or 8,400 workers in Ajaokuta that the appropriated N4.2 billion is being spent on? “

But the Minority Whip of the Senate, who is also a member of the committee, Senator Osita Ngwu (PDP Enugu West), prevented the sole administrator from responding to Natasha’s question.

Ngwu, in his interjection, said, “Please don’t let us indict ourselves because the said appropriation was approved by the National Assembly.”

In his closing remarks at the investigative hearing, the Chairman of the Ad – hoc Committee, Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire (APC – Ondo Central), said, that presentations and submissions made by the various stakeholders, would be thoroughly looked into by the committee for a way out.