Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, has finally explained the reason why he was attacked during the just concluded ward congress of the All Progressives Congress in Anambra, his home state. Video footages had went viral after Saturday's exercise showing a group of thugs attempting to violently attack the Minister before he was whisked away by his security details.
It was gathered that the hoodlums were procured by a top politician over apparent political differences.
In a statement signed by his media aide, Chikwelugo Obidiwe, the Minister said the ultimate goal was to ensure peaceful, credible, free and fair congresses in the state, so that party members would not be disenfranchised. He condemned the violence that disrupted the stakeholders' meeting in Awka.
He said the Minister got involved in the fracas because he wanted to save the life of one of the six members of the Ward Congress Committee, posted to the state by the national secretariat of the party, Musa Yunusa, who had been beaten black and blue by the thugs.
“The minister, already taken to safety by his security, broke away from protection, to intervene to rescue Yunusa, almost lifeless. The doctors, as we speak, battled to save his life at Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, from where he was transferred to another hospital, because of the JOHESU strike.
The interest of the minister, we wish to state, once more, was to ensure a credible exercise as the leader of the party in Anambra State. He is neither contesting the ward chairmanship, local government, state nor even aspiring to be a national officer of the party. He does not, also, need to run for governorship in 2021 as the two of the persons fuelling and stage-managing the crisis are angling for.”
