KOREDE FOGO
Except for withdrawing from presidential race, the Minister of transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi will today be resigning his position to focus on his campaign, in line with the president’s directive.
The minister, who has been signing off and clearing his table since the directive, will be handing over to the minister of state, transportation, Gbemisola Ruqayyah Saraki.
A highly placed senior staff of the ministry who pleaded anonymity, said Amaechi has informed Saraki of the plan to hand over to her and the event will take place in the ministry on Monday.
Recall that BUSINESSINSIDERNG, last week, reported that the minister of states will step in as the minister of Transportation as the substantive minister resigns.
Amaechi had last weekend, inaugurated the boards of the agencies under the Ministry of Transportation.
After the inauguration, one of his close associates said except the president stops him from resigning, the minister will resign and test his popularity at the All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries.
There was uncertainty over the reported resignation of Amaechi on Wednesday after the APC Twitter UK handle reported that he resigned his position following President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive that all cabinet members vying for elective offices in the 2023 elections, should resign before May 16.
The resignation of Amaechi was initially contained in a tweet by APC Twitter UK handle. It wrote, “Nigeria’s Minister of #Transportation, HM Chibuike R. Amaechi [@ChibuikeAmaechi] has resigned from the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to focus on his Presidential Campaign. “Thank you for your service to Nigeria.”
However, the minister’s aides said the news was fake and untrue.
Amaechi’s social media handler, Nkeiru Ibeleme, said the news of the minister’s resignation was not true.