The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has denied involvement in a rumoured plot that allegedly led to the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Ngige said that as the Chief Labour Officer, he lacked the time to meddle into security and diplomatic matters, which clearly fall within the mandate of the Nigerian Security and National Intelligence Agencies.
IPOB had on Thursday in a statement by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, accused the Minister, alongside the Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano and Rivers State’s Governor, Nyesom Wike, as part of an alleged plot to capture Kanu in order to protect their political interests.
However, in a statement by his Media Office in Abuja on Saturday, Ngige described the attempt to link him with the arrest of Kanu as “deceitful, mischievous, malicious and wicked.”
He said as the Chief Labour Officer, he lacked the time to meddle into security and diplomatic matters, which clearly fall within the mandate of the Nigerian Security and National Intelligence Agencies.
The Minister said IPOB and its spokesperson know him very well as a man who calls “a spade a spade” and has no room for “equivocation or speaking from both sides of the mouth” since his days as Governor in Anambra State.
The statement reads: “Ngige is occupied, involved and engrossed with his duties as the Labour and Employment Minister, member of Federal Cabinet Committee for Economic Recovery and member of the Economic Sustainability Committee constituted by President Muhammadu Buhari, which is headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, with the mandate to tackle the challenges and fallouts of COVID-19 and post COVID-19 era.
“It is therefore unthinkable that somebody with grey matter in his brain, except if he is hallucinating like the IPOB spokesman, could accuse a very busy Minister like Senator Ngige of being part of a ‘conspiracy’ for the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu.
“The Minister, being somebody with long-standing experience in the public service, knows the bounds of his office and does not have the time to meddle into Foreign Affairs of Extradition and security matters that clearly fall within the mandate of the Nigerian Diplomatic Missions, national intelligence agencies.
“Ngige is not the Minister of Police Affairs, Justice, Foreign Affairs nor the National Security Adviser, to start discussing issues of extradition or arrest of a fugitive outside Nigeria’s territory, which are clearly outside his mandate.”