Urges probe of NNPC’s alleged scandal, Baru’s resignation
• ADP wants Buhari to withdraw as petroleum minister
• Seeks corporation’s boss suspension, Kachikwu’s resignation
• President will do the needful, says VON director-general
• AYF calls for cabinet reshuffling
A group, the Niger Delta Indigenous Movement for Radical Change (NDIMRC),
has warned against attempt to frustrate the Minister of State for Petroleum,
Dr. Ibe
Kachikwu.It also called for probe of the alleged scandal in Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and suspension of its Group Managing
Director (GMD), Dr. Maikanti Baru.
In a statement signed by its President, Nelly Emma; Secretary, John
Sailor and Public Relations Officer (PRO), Stanley Mukoro, the group said that
the minister deserved to be treated fairly and accorded due respect.
It said: “We have been watching the activities of the GMD of the NNPC,
Dr. Baru, since he came on board and we are not impressed with the way he is
treating the Minister of State for Petroleum and people from the Niger Delta
region working in the NNPC.
“We have seen that the GMD of NNPC is bent on destroying the solid
foundation laid by the Minister of State for Petroleum and determined to
frustrate the minister, but we are not going to take this likely because the
oil Dr. Baru is presiding over belongs to the people of the Niger Delta region
and not the North.
“The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, must be
allowed to take charge of the board of NNPC. In another development, the Action
Democratic Party (ADP) has said that President Muhammadu Buhari lacks the
wherewithal to oversee the oil industry owing to the controversy surrounding
the award of $26 billion contract in the NNPC.
It, therefore, demanded the immediate resignation of Buhari as the
Minister of Petroleum. National Secretary of the party, Dr. James Okoroma, who
addressed reporters in Abuja, also asked Kachikwu to resign his appointment
since it has become apparent that he has “become a stranger in President
Buhari’s cabinet.”
Also, the party called for the immediate suspension of Baru to enable
investigation into alleged impropriety in the award of the contract. Besides,
the Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu, has said
that he was confident that the NNPC feud would effectively be addressed by
Buhari.
Okechukwu, who spoke against the backdrop of the feud between the
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and the Group Managing Director of
the NNPC, said: “I am not the spokesman of the President. President Buhari will
do the needful and will not allow anyone to dent his image or tarnish his
integrity quotient. If the allegations are valid, this is his political capital
upon which we followed him, upon which Nigerians voted for him and upon which
the international community endorsed him.”
However, youths, under the aegis of Arewa Youth Forum (AYF), have called
for cabinet reshuffling. The AYF in a statement signed by its National
President, Alhaji Gambo Ibrahim Gujungu, posited that those expected to assist
the President in his change agenda have failed in the discharge of their
duties, hence the need for cabinet reshuffling in a statement signed by its
National President, Alhaji Gambo Ibrahim Gujungu and made available to newsmen
in Kaduna at the weekend, the youths said a “situation where majority of
Nigerians languish in abject poverty and penury is a worrisome development and
a cause for concern.”
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