The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has said some influential Nigerians are aggrieved President Muhammadu Buhari because they are not getting free money like it used to be.
Ngige who spoke with newsmen in Abuja,said some elites are not supporting the second term bid of the President against the interestof the masses.
The Minister affirmed that some elements in the elitist class wanted the money that has been trapped by the Treasury Single Account to be pushed down again on the table for them tostart taking,saying that such is no longer possible.
He also said the choice of Peter Obi from the South-East as the running mate of the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, would have no influence in the region during the general elections.
Ngige, who confidently said that Obi had no influence in the South East as believed, posited that those who are shouting that Obi is this and that are the elite, who are looking for one thing or the other and people who don’t believe that Muhammadu Buhari has done something good in their lives because they want money.
Alleging that voting did not take place substantially in 2015 in the South-East and South-South,he said that votes were allegedly allotted to the region’s preferred candidate.
The Labour Minister assured that the PDP will not have an easy ride this time since they do not control the police and army.
He emphasised that winning an election is about strategic positioning and calculation towards a specific direction, pointing out that people’s votes will count in the forthcoming election.
“Yes the PDP has a vice presidential candidate from my zone (South East) and I can tell you that it won’t be easy for them.
Winning of election is all about calculation and strategic positioning and measured steps towards a direction.
“Two things are happening in 2015 election, there was no voting in most of the South-East and South-South, votes were allocated.
“The card reader hadn’t become functional, it was just new and could be tampered with and at the end of the day most votes were allocated.
“So Muhammadu Buhari was allocated 18,000 votes in the entire Anambra State; is it possible?
“When my local government Idemili South alone had 80,000 registered voters, Idemili North 200,000 registered voters, you are talking about 280,000 votes so they were allocated votes.
“Even if they want to allocate,they can’t do it now because they are not in charge of police and army like that time.
“They took police, army, navy everything and armoured tank and drove us away, in fact they put a price on my head.
“This time, it won’t happen; people will go and cast votes and whatever is cast is what we will announce.
“We are not interested in rigging or chasing people about with armoured tank,”he disclosed.