Comments made by the Minister of Employment and Labour, Chris Ngige might have landed him in trouble with the upper legislative chambers of the National Assembly.

The Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions made known to the National Assembly its intention to have the Minister come before it to explain the nature of his threat to banks that defy the Federal Government’s directive to desist from sacking its staff.

The Federal Government had threatened to sanction or withdraw the license of any bank that goes ahead to dismiss its members of staff.

The chairman of the committee, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim informed the Senate on Wednesday of the decision to invite Ngige to explain the basis of his directive and resultant threat to banks.

“The Minister of Labour made a statement threatening banks to stop retrenchment of staff. Banking being a very sensitive industry, any misguided statement can have a throwback on the industry‎; it can create a run on the banks.”

“As the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking and Finance, we want to invite the minister, the central bank and the banks to know if they are talking about retrenchment and what will happen.”

“‎We want to know the basis of the directive and the basis of the threat.”

Reacting to the piece of information, Senate President Bukola Saraki said, “They will come and meet before your committee isn’t it? So, it is just for our information.”

Adebayo Emuleomo