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President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday approved the immediate redeployment of two ministers of state.
A statement from the office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation (OSGF) said Festus Keyamo leaves the Niger Delta Affairs Ministry as minister of state for the Labour and Employment Ministry in the same capacity.
However, Senator Tayo Alasoadura, on the other hand, headed for the Niger Delta Ministry as minister of state.
Although the statement swapping Keyamo and Senator Alasoadura did not specify reasons, it was gathered that President Muhammadu Buhari allegedly acted on a request by the people of Ondo regarding their purported poor representation in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
While Ondo State indigenes expected the president to appoint one of them as the Minister of Niger Delta Ministry, they were forced to protest the predominance of Delta indigenes in the commission and ministry.
“Moved by the genuineness of the Ondo stance, President Buhari in his usual understanding decided to swap the two ministers of state for balance,” a source said.
He rejected suggestions by conspiracy theorists that Keyamo was moved following some revelations about the use of campaign funds, stressing that “it is not the business of the presidency to start probing the use of funds four months after the election we won.”
It would be recalled that Keyamo was the Director of Publicity in All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organisation. And although speculations were rife that he would be allotted the Justice portfolio, President Buhari named him a junior minister under the former Akwa Ibom State governor, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
The fact that Keyamo, as counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was involved in the botched prosecution of the erstwhile governor for alleged corruption caused some hullabaloo shortly after the president allocated portfolios to the Next Level ministers.
The initial reaction of some Nigerians to the slight cabinet reshuffle was that the Presidency must have decided to avert the moral hangover that could cause some misgivings between Akapbio and Keyamo, by moving the Senior Advocate to the Labour and Employment Ministry.