Minimum Wage Committee: PDP Demands Probe As Tinubu Okays N500m For Inauguration

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called for a National Assembly investigation into the approval of N500 million, the first installment of a purported N1bn approval allegedly by President Bola Tinubu, for the inauguration of a 37-man Tripartite Committee on the New National Minimum Wage.

A leaked memo surfaced, On Thursday, revealing that President Tinubu allegedly approved N500m out of a total of N1bn to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, for the inauguration of a 37-man Tripartite Committee on the New National Minimum Wage.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in a statement on Friday, described the approval as the height of financial recklessness.

“The PDP describes the said approval of the huge amount for a routine government activity like committee inauguration as the height of profligacy, imprudence, and financial recklessness which further validates PDP’s position that the Tinubu-led government is a cesspit of corruption where officials engage in brazen and reckless treasury-looting,” the statement said.

It further described it as provocative and unpardonable that at a time when the nation was suffering from acute food shortages, with millions of Nigerians starving due largely to inadequate investment in food production, insecurity, and harsh economic policies of the government, President Tinubu was allegedly spending a huge amount to inaugurate a committee.

The statement read in part, “It is even more revealing that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation allegedly requested for an audacious sum of N1.8bn for the event which was later scaled down to N1bn, out of which President Tinubu reportedly directed the SGF to “start with N500m first.”