Oshiomhole Threatens To Sack Chris Ngige From The APC

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The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, on Monday threatened to sack the minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige from the APC.

 

The former Labour leader is having issues with the Minister over inauguration of Board of parastatals under the Ministry.

 

The ex-Edo Governor has written Mr Ngige asking him to inaugurate all boards under his Ministry, a request which Ngige turned down through a letter he replied to the APC Chairman, as he stated that

three boards in the ministry has been inaugurated, as he added that he won’t be in a hurry to inaugurate the board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), due to an alleged N40 billion corruption fraud by the former board when they held sway.

 

While speaking to State House correspondents he said; “If the minister refuses we will suspend him from the party.”

 

“For me it is the height of mischief for any minister, you cannot purport to be an honourable minister and you act dishonourably and nobody is greater than the party.

 

Oshiohmole said; “You know, we must return to internal discipline. You cannot purport to be an honourable minister and you act dishonourably. Nobody is greater than the party.

 

“If the President condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party.

 

“And when we expel the minister, we will not prevail on the President that he can’t keep in his cabinet people who have neither respect for his own decisions nor have respect for the party without which they would not have been ministers.

 

“There are no independent candidates in our system. Nobody, I emphasise, no minister is above the party and they have taken undue advantage of the President’s fatherly disposition.”

 

Mr Oshiomhole said it was the same “green pen” that made them ministers that also appointed the board members that they are refusing to inaugurate.

 

He said it was illegal for a minister in a democracy to subvert the powers of the boards because the laws establishing the institutions are clear.

 

The party chairman said he was sure that affected ministers did not have the President’s backing in their actions.

 

“When a minister sits in his office to appropriate the powers of the board in a democracy — not in a dictatorship — and award contracts that didn’t go through boards, those are clear abuse of office for which they are liable.

 

“I am convinced that what they are doing is not with the endorsement of Mr. President. Over the period, they have tried to drop the President’s name, but I tell them it is the same authority that appointed these people.

 

“So, we are informing them that it is either they comply with the President’s instructions or they comply with the party’s position or they go and administer outside the government.

 

“We have respect for ministers, but only to the extent that they recognise that they are products of a political party and we are not negotiating that.

 

“If they did that in the past, under our leadership we will not tolerate it.

 

“They either comply or we will expel them from the party.

 

“When we expel them, we will find out how a government can keep a rebel in the cabinet.

 

“There is no question about that.”

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