Ahead of Saturday’s Presidential election, Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, has distanced himself from a social media report attributing to him comments concerning the chances of three frontline presidential candidates.

Ngige also cautioned the spokesman of the Southeast All Progressive Congress, APC, Presidential Council, Josef Onoh, for mentioning his name among Igbo political office holders, who benefited from APC but refused to give back to the party.

The former Anambra State Governor, who reacted in a statement by his media office in Abuja, yesterday, described the social media post as concocted and fictitious, urging well-meaning members of the public to disregard the fake news.

The statement read, “My attention has been drawn to the viral report in social media, saying that I asked Igbos not to waste their votes on the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi. The same fake report quoted me as labeling both the Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as a bunch of PDP looters, with the aim to come back to power to continue inflicting pains on Nigerians through the instrumentality of corruption and looting. It further claimed that I boasted that the progressives will remain in power in 2023 and that Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu will take over from President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Ordinarily, I am not given to responding to everything I see on social media, knowing how misleading and deceptive a substantial number of them could be. But, following the bombardment of my phone by concerned friends, relations, and associates, both political and apolitical, I wish to use this medium to debunk this fake report, which neither emanated directly from me nor my media office.

“The report is concocted, fictitious, and fake. It is the handiwork of disingenuous political jobbers who believe they could get more credit alerts from their paymasters by circulating falsehoods about Dr. Chris Ngige on social media.

“Recall that earlier on January 2 this year, while distributing his annual Christmas largesse to APC members, indigent, widows, and aged persons in his hometown, Alor, Idemili South LGA of Anambra State, I stated in black and white that I had no preferred candidate out of the four frontrunners, namely, Peter Obi of Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar of PDP, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of our own, APC and Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of NNPP. I wish to reaffirm that they are all good candidates with cognate experience at the federal and state levels and are all my friends. They are well known to me, having worked with me in one way or the other before now. As of today, my position on the presidency has not changed. I don’t think there is anything that has happened to warrant me to change my position.”

The minister urged the public to disregard the report, describing it as a bundle of disinformation, meant to deceive unsuspecting members of the public.

Regarding the unguarded utterances made against him by Josef Onoh in the media, Ngige said he would have joined issues with him if the statement was made by his father, the former Governor of old Anambra State, late Chief C.C. Onoh.

According to the Minister, things that elders see while on the ground, Josef Onoh would not be able to see, even on top of the palm tree.

“If this was coming from his father, Okaaomee Ngwo, Aninefungwu, and the Liberation Leader of the Wawa people of Southern Nigeria, it would have made sense and Ngige would reply. But, coming from a latter-day joiner of APC, just less than six months old in the party, and not knowing how the party was formed, and the contributions of each person, we would leave him with his ignorance to continue with his job hunting.

“If he were Okaaome’s true son, he would have contested and won an Executive or Legislative seat, instead of maligning elders. He should also get the historical information about his father’s journey to the then Anambra State Governorship and he would find the name of the young Dr. Chris Ngige who was the National Assembly Physician to Senate President Joseph Wayas.

“Once again, for the records, Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment has made it abundantly clear that he would not campaign for any of the four frontrunners for the presidency because they are all his friends and brothers, and he had one or two political dealings with each and every one of them, and hence, his conscience will not permit him, doing so.”

Ngige assured that on Election Day, he would pray for all the contestants and vote according to the dictates of his conscience.

He wondered why the minions of one or two candidates would not allow him to concentrate on his national assignment of assisting the present administration to finish strong, but instead go about peddling all kinds of fake narratives, aimed at either setting him against the party he was part of its conception and birth, his Igbo ethnic group or some candidates.