The Middle Belt Emancipation Movement has dismissed as biased, the statement credited to former commissioner for information in Kogi State, Tom Ohikere, on the disagreement between the Minster of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige and the member representing Ikeja Federal Constituency, James Faleke.
The group, in a statement by Alhaji Mohammed Yunusa and Dominic Nyam Tshon, president and secretary respectively, said any assessment which ignores the premeditated actions of Faleke who allegedly threw parliamentary decorum overboard in order to embarrass and ridicule the minister should be treated as a hogwash.
“If the public hearing was to ascertain the extent the minster adhered to due process in the suspension of the top executive and management of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, Nigerians deserve an explanation on the reason, Faleke deviated to issues that do not even remotely connect to the subject of the hearing.
“ How does the percentage of votes the APC scored in Ngige’s local Government in 2019 general elections connect to the suspension of the top management of the NSITF over monumental corruption that runs into billions of Naira?
“Does Faleke need to interrogate the right as well as the choice of Ngige as minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by the president if not to ridicule the former senator?
“Shouldn’t Faleke concentrate on how the minister discharges his responsibilities instead of exploiting the occasion to throw snide shots? Was that part of the legislative investigation on the breach of presidential directives to ministers? The questions were clearly off the mark, provocative and silly and therefore deserved the response given by the Minister. We make bold to state that Sen. Ngige has credibly discharged the core mandate of the ministry which is to promote productive employment policies and programmes for employment generation as well as maintain stable industrial milieu.”