A member of the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Murtala Yakubu Ajaka, has directed political appointees on the platform of the Party to either campaign publicly in support of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubus ticket or immediately resign their appointments from the party-led administration.
The APC chieftain was reacting to comments made on a national television programme on Friday, by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, where he failed to publicly affirm his choice of presidential candidate between Tinubu and Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP), when he was asked to do so by the presenter. According to Ngige, such a question is difficult to answer, because both Tinubu and Peter Obi are his friends.
Ajaka cautioned that the political appointees should not play hide-and-seek about their political standing.
Recall that the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, had earlier alleged that some appointees of APC were working for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. In reaction, through an issued statement yesterday, the APC Deputy Spokesperson described such comments from a sitting Minister in a government of the ruling party as uncalled for.
While describing Ngiges comments on a national TV programme as anti-party, Ajaka said, Chief Ngige and other APC appointees, especially in the federal cabinet, should not forget in a hurry that they are holding onto the partys 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.
According to Ajaka, if such trend is allowed to continue among the appointees and party leaders, it is capable of generating bad blood among APC rank-and-file.
While calling on President Buhari to call his cabinet members to order and obtain their commitments to delivering APC in 2023, Ajaka wondered that with this type of public comments from a sitting minister in a ruling party who cannot declare his choice of presidential candidate on national television, how on earth is the Party expected to fare in the forthcoming presidential election?”
