The All Progressives Congress, APC, has told the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, and others in his mould to either campaign for the party’s presidential candidate for the 2023 elections, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, or resign their positions.
This was made known in a statement by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Murtala Yakubu Ajaka.
Ajaka was reacting to the failure of Ngige to take a firm position on voting for Tinubu in the 2023 elections in an interview on Friday.
Rather, Ngige said that his choice of presidential candidate in the 2023 elections will be determined at the polling booth.
The Minister, who spoke on Friday during an interview on a Channels Television programme: “Politics Today,” said when asked by the host of the show, Seun Okinbaloye, who he would vote for between Tinubu and Labour Party’s Peter Obi, said: “I’m not active in politics for now because I am facing a national assignment.
“Both of them are my friends.
“My choice will be in the ballot box.
“It is a secret ballot.
“I shouldn’t tell Nigerians what I would do secretly.”,’’ he said evasively.
Responding to Ngige’s position in a statement on Saturday, Ajaka said: “It is expected of a serving Minister in an APC government to be a trusted apostle of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidency in 2023, who along other party leaders laboured to ensure the enthronement of the same government in 2015 which they are now serving in.
“Chief Ngige and other APC appointees, especially in the federal cabinet should not forget in a hurry that they are holding onto party’s mandate, hence the need to protect it with whatever it requires, but if they can no longer protect the interest of the APC in public and that of our presidential candidate (Tinubu), I think the honourable thing to do is to step aside from the government formed by the APC.”
