Ngige Secretly ‘Delisted’ Frank Kokori’s Name From NSITF Board, As Kokori Vows To Gatecrash Inauguration Ceremony

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige may have allegedly secretly delisted a former General Secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers Union (NUPENG), Frank Kokori as the Chairman of the board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) which is billed to be inaugurated tomorrow.

For reasons yet to be fathom, the minister who is statutorily empowered to inaugurate boards of agencies under his control had failed to inaugurate the NSITF board under the leadership of Frank Kokori, citing several excuses at different times.

The board membership with Frank Kokori as chairman was constituted by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in October 2017 in his capacity as acting president.

BIGPEN ONLINE gathered that since the appointment, Ngige has been evading calling the board members for inauguration but for yet to be ascertained reasons released programmes for the inauguration of the board on Wednesday, skipping the name of it chairman, Kokori.

This medium reliably gathered that the delay inauguration was allegedly linked to claims that there are alot of mess in the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and the Minister had reportedly instructed that the agency should be properly clean up before the arrival of Frank Kokori whom they feared may likely dig up files and probe alot of abnormally in the agency.

According to PREMIUM TIMES, Ngige skipped inviting Mr Kokori to the ceremony taking place on Thursday morning at his office, although he was named chairman when the then acting president, Yemi Osinbajo, announced the appointment of the board in October 2017, Kokori’s name was omitted on the list of members of the board to be inaugurated on Thursday, the newspaper had reported.

The inauguration which will hold at the minister’s conference room has 11 members of the committee to be confirmed but the names of only 10 were provided on the agenda.

The programme contains names, contacts and designations of the 10 board members but curiously had no information on the board chairman.

The members include Mohammed Yinusa and Timothy Olawale as representatives of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Ibrahim Khaleel and Waheed Adeyanju representing the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

Others are Ifeoma Anyawuataku of the Labour Ministry, Dutse Aminu of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and Jasper Azutalam, Tijani Suleiman, Kemi Nelson, Bayo Somefun, all of NSITF.

Nwachukwu Nbadiwe, spokesperson to Mr Ngige, could not provide an explanation for the omission. He referred PREMIUM TIMES to the presidency.

“Why don’t you find out from the presidency why the name was removed? I don’t know about that,” he said.

The newspaper reports that Mr Nbadiwe was again evasive when asked who would chair the committee.

“When you come tomorrow, raise it as a question, there is an opportunity for you to ask questions,” he replied.

When contacted, Mr Kokori on Wednesday evening told PREMIUM TIMES he was not aware of any reason for the omission of his name.

He, however, insisted on making himself available for the inauguration with or without invitation.

“There are no issues. Why they are treating me like that I don’t know. I heard this story that they want to launch the board, I called people there and they told me that the chairmanship position was left vacant. But the whole world knows, I’m the chairman.

“Why not. I’m the chairman, why should I give up? Unless the president tells me to do otherwise, I must show up.”