Senate President Denies Involvement In NPower Scheme Fraud

Senate President Ahmad Lawan has dismissed reports that he was allocated job slots in the ongoing federal government empowerment scheme, NPower.

Naija News reports that an online newspaper had claimed that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management had allocated some Npower slots to the Senate President and some lawmakers.

In a statement on Saturday by his spokesperson, Ola Awoniyi, Ahmed Lawan urged Nigerians to disregard such claims.

Lawan who described the allegation as a fake and malicious urged the media to be factual in their reports and abide strictly by the ethics of their profession.

The statement reads: “The attention of the Office of the Senate President has been drawn to a publication on the Sahara Reporters portal purporting that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management allocated NPower recruitment slots to the Senate President and other lawmakers

“We hereby advise members of the public to totally disregard the fake and malicious publication in its entirety as regards the Senate President.

“It should be noted that the fairytale only blandly and obliquely claimed that some lawmakers printed out application forms from the portal of the scheme but failed to provide any evidence that this was to fill its speculated allocated slots.

“We wish to stress that neither the Senate President nor this office has anything to do with the purported slots mischievously credited by the publication to the Senate President.

“We urge the media to always strive to be factual in their reports and abide strictly by the ethics of their profession which require them to hear from all sides and objectively establish the facts, especially before publishing accusations capable of damaging the reputation of public officials.

“Finally, we firmly restate that the story in reference is malicious and should be disregarded.”