Labour Minister, Ngige Blasts Oshiomhole Over Suspension Threat

The minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige has said that he remains unshaken by the threat of suspension by the national chairman of the All Progressive’s Congress, Adams Oshiomhole.

On Monday, Oshiomhole threatened to suspend ministers who are yet to inaugurate board members of federal agencies and parastatal under their ministries and also ask the president to prevail over such ministers.

The APC chairman said under his leadership, the party will not tolerate ministers who abuse their office and disrespect President Muhammadu Buhari by refusing to carry out his directives.

Following the statement, the ox of the labour minister seems gored by the comment made by the ruling party chairman.

The Minister therefore reacted by saying he is not afraid of being suspended by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Under him, the parastatals and agencies with no full appointments yet are the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), National Directorate of Employment (NDE), National Productivity Centre (NPC), and Michael Imoudu Institute for Labour Studies
(MINILS).

But faulting Oshiomhole’s comment at Aso Rock on Wednesday, Ngige said the APC chairman was talking out of ignorance.

He explained that the board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) was yet to be inaugurated because of reports of alleged diversion of funds to the tune of N48 billion.

When asked if he would comply and if he was not afraid of suspension from the party, Ngige said, “How? In a party that we formed and brought them in? The man is talking out of ignorance. I’m not afraid of suspension.”

Ngige had earlier written to Oshiomhole over the issue.

He said: “Our national chairman, I am in receipt of a letter referenced APC/NHDQ/ GEN-S/28/018/003 dated July 11, 2018, which was sent from your office and received by me on July 12, 2018. Ordinarily, I would not believe the letter was from you except for the barrage of media statements that came before I saw the letter. I read the contents of this letter with both amazement and utter disbelief.”

The minister said he had reconstituted three boards out of the four agencies and parastatals under his ministry,
but has not been able to constitute the board of NSITF because of cases of financial malfeasance, which have
put the agency under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).