The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige has dismissed as satanic, assertions by billionnire businessman, Prince Arthur Eze that he once took his biological father to court, disrespected his community and the National Assembly.
The minister, in a statement said he showed love, care and respect to his father and mother in obedience to the fourth commandment of God. He stressed that he accorded them such love and care till old age and death took them away.
The statement which issued by his media office, read: “This nebulous fabrication by Arthur Eze is a mischievous deduction from a normal, minor family disagreement in 2002 where the Hon. Minister asserted his right as a family member and issues were amicably settled the same year. If Arthur Eze has forgotten, it was Pa Ngige who gave his blessings to his son in 2003 when he vied for the office of the Governor of Anambra State while the trio of Chris Uba, Senator Abana and Chris Atuegwu went to see him in the company of Sen. Ngige to receive his blessings.”
According to the minister, it was rather Arthur Eze who abandoned his late mother and was consequently cursed.
The statement mentioned “recall I have known Arthur since 1967 just as my sister is also married to his Ukpo town, so I know him full well. What he did to his mother , he also did to his senior brother, Sam Eze who haboured him in his Kirikiri home before he moved to squat with me from 1981, 1982, 1983 up to 1984.
On the allegation of disrespecting the National Assembly, the statement said Sen. Ngige as a former Senator, would not disrespect the National Assembly.
“It is unfortunate that Arthur Eze in his shallow mindedness will extrapolate and misconstrue a misunderstanding at the Public Hearing of the National Assembly as a disrespect by Sen. Ngige who is a product of the same institution. The Minister holds and will continue to hold the National Assembly in high esteem.
On the issue of Ngige being an accidental Minister, the statement added, “I accept that I am an accidental minister twice but it is doubtful whether Arthur Eze is qualified to be an accidental minister, even for once. President Buhari’s council of ministers position is not ‘accidental’ in any form as only men and women of great acumen, high integrity, honour and wealth of experience are usually chosen, otherwise Prince Eze could have bought the position on the two occasions that he had tried to do so, but failed.”
The statement recalled that Ngige served as National Assembly doctor before becoming the Senate President’s physician, worked in federal the civil service, during which he worked to establish many Federal Government clinics, Federal medical centres and teaching hospitals in Nigeria, before retiring voluntarily as the Deputy Director of Hospital Services and Training, from the Federal Ministry of Health in 1998 and venturing into politics to do further public service so as to touch more lives, having served meritoriously.