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

The company has remained non-functional with ongoing efforts by the government to revive it, alongside the National Iron Ore Mining Company.

The query on the number of workers to earn the appropriated N4.2bn came to the fore during the investigative hearing on the alleged incidence of corruption in the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited and National Iron Ore Mining Company, from 2002.

The hearing is being conducted by a Senate ad hoc committee.

The Deputy Chairman of the committee and senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, took up the Sole Administrator of the company, Summaila Abdul Akaba, on the workers collecting salaries and to be paid the N4.2bn.

She said being from the area, she was desirous to get the steel company revived and working, adding that during unscheduled visits to the place, she hardly found 10 persons.

She lamented that despite the humongous amount of money spent on personnel costs by the steel company every year, no steel had been manufactured and no mill rolled.

The lawmaker said, “The Sole Administrator of Ajaokuta Steel Company, I have a good question for you being an indigene of the area, I’m very worried about the state of the company and passionate about its revival.

“The sum of N4.2bn was appropriated for personnel cost in 2024, but from several visits 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.

“So, where are the 14,000 or 8,400 workers in Ajaokuta on which the appropriated N4.2bn is being spent?”

The Minority Whip of the Senate and senator representing Enugu West, Osita Ngwu, however, prevented the sole administrator from responding to the question.

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

In his closing remarks at the hearing, the Chairman of the ad hoc committee, Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire, said presentations and submissions made by the various stakeholders would be looked into by the committee and reported to the Senate.

Some stakeholders at the investigative hearing were the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, a director from the Central Bank of Nigeria, a director from the Bureau of Public Enterprises, a representative of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, a representative of the Steel and Engineering Union Workers of Nigeria, among others.