Minister of Labour and
Employment, Chris Ngige, has denied a statement credited to him that President
Muhammadu Buhari has spent N1bn on late Alex Ekwueme.
Ngige on Sunday said Buhari had
committed about N1bn on Ekwueme from the day the Federal Government took over
his medical bills to date.
But in what appears to be a
u-turn, Ngige described reports on his interview with the press on the
commitment of the Federal Government to the burial of former Vice President
Alex Ekwueme. as misleading and needless.
In a statement from the Special
Assistant to the Minister on media affairs, Nwachukwu Obidiwe, on Tuesday,
Ngige said no figure was attached to what he termed “a deserving national
tribute to one of Nigeria’s foremost Statesman.”
The statement reads “Ngige only
gave a summary of the number of projects the Federal Government has taken to
ensure that a man, who easily was Nigeria’s beacon of democracy, was given a
decent burial.
“For the avoidance of doubt, what
Ngige did as a member of the Burial Planning Committee was to give the details
of the road rehabilitation projects from the Awka end of the State and from
Abia and Imo State axis, all leading to Ekwueme’s home town of Oko, as well as
the medical services, the Mausoleum and others. But at no time did the Minister
attach a figure of One Billion Naira.
“The Minister is an Igbo man and
knows full well that just as a count is not taken of the number of children a
parent is blessed with in Igbo tradition, the same tradition holds for the
burial rites and attendant expenses even more sacred to warrant such display of
figures.
“The Burial Planning Committee is
satisfied with the progress of the work and looking forward to a very
successful event which has already kicked off beautifully and successfully in
Lagos, Abuja and Enugu.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com