Senate wants stiffer sanctions for job racketeering

The Senate has said it plans to enact a law prescribing stiffer sanctions to stem job racketeering and disregard for the federal character principles in employment.

The Chairman,Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Sen. Allwell Onyesoh, said this at a meeting with management of Federal Character Commission in Abuja on Tuesday.

Onyesoh said that Nigerians were used to reacting to employment issues using emotion, without clarifying or carry investigation further on the issue around employment process in Nigeria.

“It is something that is very dangerous, a simple statement like, oh this thing is out we are not getting it.

” There is job there, they are employing secretly, is enough to cause problem.

“And the purview of FCC covers that,hence we felt it is proper to call them and sit down, dot the ‘I’ and cross the ‘t’, make every of their activities more transparent, more glaringly clear for people to see.

“We want to open up the space,” Onyesoh said.

He said that the essence of the federal character was to create unity, fairness and equity.

“You can’t have that if someone is feeling rejected, feeling not carried along.

“You must put some sanctions, if you want things to work, we are considering stiffer penalties, there must be consequence for everything.

”This is one of the few committees that derives it’s power from the constitution,” he said.

Earlier, the Executive Chairperson, FCC, Dr Muheeba Dankaka, said that the issue of job racketeering was new to the office.

She also appealed to the committee to help the commission toward upscaling its budget , given the enormous responsibility of the commission.