JUST IN: Ngige Aborts NSITF Inauguration Over Imbroglio With Frank Kokori

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has announced the postponement of the board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) which was billed to be inaugurated today, Thursday, April 18, 2019.

It was learnt that guest were seated at the minister’s conference room at the Ministry of Labour when it was announced that the inauguration which was scheduled to hold by 10:30 a.m has been shifted indefinitely.

According to PREMIUM TIME, the time was about 11:40 a.m, when the Director of Human Resources in the ministry, Ajibola Ibrahim, came in to announce that the inauguration has been postponed indefinitely.

“The minister has sent me to inform you that the inauguration has been postponed indefinitely. He asked me to apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

“As soon as a new date is fixed, it will be communicated,” he said. Mr Ibrahim also said many of the members are “not present,” hence the postponement.

Meanwhile, Members of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and other workers present protested the announcement, vowing to resist any inauguration without the presence of Frank Kokori as the chairman.

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They said that Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, is planning a secret inauguration which will be null and void and will also lead to mass protest.

They said all their members are present and vowed to be on standby until the minister shows up or announces a new date for the inauguration.

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.

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It was gathered that while the imbroglio was on, the name of the veteran Labour leader was schemed out and one Mr. Austin Enajemo-Isire, a chartered accountant, professional insurance executive and banker was named as NSITF chairman and Kokori later announced as Chairman of the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), Ilorin, Kwara State, an appointment that takes immediate effect.