accuses Minister of illegal contract awards National chairman of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has threatened to expel Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige from the party if the minister does not immediately inaugurate the Management Board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), a parastatal under the Ministry. Speaking to State House correspondents on Monday morning at the Aso Rock Villa, Oshiomhole also warned that he would prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari sack Ngige from the federal cabinet for insurbodination and disrespect Goths President if the Minister failed to act appropriately. The APC chairman Oshiomhole had earlier directed the Minister to inaugurate the Board as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari some months, but Ngige replied him stating that he would not take instructions from the party chairman. The Minister had also argued that a case of fraud alleged against the previous Board of the NSITF had prevented him from inaugurating a new one, an explanation that Oshiomhole had dismissed as not tenable as a new Board would not stop any investigations. Reacting to what the APC chairman probably sees as anti-party activity and insurbodination, Oshiomhole countered that the same President that appointed Ngige also appointed the new Board, so the Minister just do the needful or be sacked and being expelled from the party. Oshiomhole, who spoke to the press after meeting the President and Chief of Staff to the President at the Villa, further accused Ngige of fragrantly and illegally awarding contracts in NSITF because there is no Board in place. According to Oshiomhole: “If the minister refuses we will suspend him from the party. You know we must return to internal discipline. For me it is the height of mischief for any minister; you cannot purport to be honourable minister and you act dishonourably and nobody is greater than the party. “And if the President condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party. And when we expel the minister we will 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 candidate in our system, nobody, I emphasis no minister is above the party and they have taken undue advantage of the president’s fatherly disposition. “Now, it is the same green pen that made them ministers that appointed these boards that they are refusing to swear in. And it is absolutely illegal for a minister in a democracy to prey on the powers of the board because the laws establishing those institutions are clear, that the boards have procedures to follow. “So, when a minister sits in his office to appropriate the powers of the Board in a democracy, not in a dictatorship, award contract that didn’t go through boards, those are clearly 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 appoint these people. “So, we are informing them that it is either they comply to 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 recognize that they are a product 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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