Adams Oshiomhole, the National
Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has warned that the party will
not hesitate to suspend or expel any Minister who flouts orders from President
Muhammadu Buhari.
Oshiomhole said this in reaction
to the delay by the Minister of Labour, Senator Chris Ngige, to inaugurate the
board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Funds, NSITF.
The Minister had refused to
inaugurate the board over alleged fraud committed by the previous board to the
tune of over N40 billion.
However, Oshiomhole, while
speaking with journalists after meeting with Buhari at the President Villa,
Abuja, said he won’t condone disrespect from any Minister.
When asked on the comment by
Ngige, the former Edo State Governor said, “If the minister refuse 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 minister that appointed these boards that they are refusing to
swear in. And it is absolutely illegal for a minister in a democracy to prey
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 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.”
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