Ngige set to battle Victor Umeh over Senate seat

Barring any last minute change, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, will be looking forward to giving Senator Victor Umeh a run for his money.

The minister of Labour has said that he wants to return to the seat presently occupied by Umeh of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

Ngige of the All Progressives Congress (APC) dropped the hint on Monday at a briefing at Obosi in the Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State.

Umeh, a former national chairman of APGA, was sworn in January by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki after the courts declared him winner after a disputed election.

It will be recalled that Ngige represented the Anambra Central District in the Senate between 2011 and 2015 after defeating a former minister of Information, the late Prof. Dora Akunyili, of APGA in the 2011 general elections.

Read also: 2019: Why Saraki is not fit to contest —APC

According to him, he has come under pressure from his constituents and South East leaders to contest for the Senate.

He said: “The people who are pressurising me are my constituents; the people of Anambra State and some prominent people from the South-East.

“We are all in agreement that we need to go and better the milieu of the ninth Senate. Many people feel that the present eighth Senate has been engulfed in a battle of supremacy with the executive and they feel that some of us who have tested the executive and legislature should go back. The Senate is not for kindergartens.

“I am considering it, I am consulting and the result of my consultations will be made known in a fortnight.”

On allegations that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has marginalized Anambra State and the entire South East, Ngige said there is no truth in the allegations, insisting they are mere campaigns of calumny by the opposition.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria has been generous to the people of the South-East; I am from the South-East. You see the President promised us infrastructure development and the South-East has not been left out.

“When you talk about infrastructure, you are talking about transport, road infrastructure, air infrastructure, sea, health and power infrastructure. In all these areas, we (South- East) have not been left untouched.

“If you drive from Enugu now to Awka, you will see the work that is ongoing on the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway; if you go there and see the thickness of asphalting work, you will marvel”, he said.

 

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