Niger Delta Ex-Agitators Forum
(NDEF) on Sunday condemned ongoing smear campaign targeted at Dr Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum
Resources.
Prince Amaibi Hornby President of
NDEF said in Yenagoa, that the frivolous allegations made against Kachikwu were
false and baseless.
He said that rather than applaud the
results achieved by policies introduced by the minister, those who were
aggrieved by Kachikwu’s policy of probity and transparency in the oil sector
resorted to blackmail to discredit him.
He warned various groups engaged in
unwarranted attacks to tarnish the image of Kachikwu to desist from the act as
it was unacceptable to the Niger Delta region.
Hornby said that recent threat by
one of the groups engaged in the smear campaign to embark on a protest to
ground operations of the Petroleum Resources Ministry over Kachikwu’s degree
classification was provocative.
He told the groups to leave Kachikwu
alone as no amount of distraction would blackmail him to succumb to the
intimidation, adding that the NDEF would no longer tolerate further attacks on
Kachikwu.
“We are very concerned that a man
who has been exemplary has been exposed to attacks by those who feel aggrieved
by his policies that have made the once opaque industry transparent.
“Before now, nobody knows the volume
of oil and gas produced daily by the country but under Kachikwu’s leadership,
the Ministry of Petroleum Resources publishes oil output data every month since
he took over.
“These faceless groups should be
warned and not take the Niger Delta region for granted, Kachikwu has responded
and debunked the lies bandied about his degree classification.
“He issued a statement to say that
he never claimed to have a first class degree in Law from University of
Nigeria, his profile is in public domain, those after him should have a
rethink.
“We do not want to go back to the
dark days and nobody should provoke us because everyone realized those youths
of the region has the capacity to disrupt oil production, it took Kachikwu’s
intervention to normalize things,” Hornby said.
Also Mr Salvation Rufus, Leader of 2nd
Phase Ex-Militants group said that allegations of operating a foreign account for
an expatriate in the oil sector like Kachikwu makes no sense.
He noted that Kachikwu was key to
creating the existing peace in the region during the fact finding tour of the
Vice President to the Niger Delta region and any breach of the peace would have
adverse consequences..
He observed that those seeking to discredit
Kachikwu were doing so to distract him from actualizing the promises made by
the federal government to fast track development of the region.
He said that the region would not
condone further attacks on the Minister adding that any further attack on
Kachikwu will be resisted by Niger Delta region.
“The region is being provoked having
been waiting patiently for the actualization of the pledge to use modular
refineries to drive development, the relocation of International oil firms to
Niger Delta amongst other promises.
“The Minister of State remains a
shining example in Buhari’s cabinet. A worthy Ambassador of the region. To these
faceless groups behind these spurious allegations and campaign of calumny, the
time to stop is now.
No comments:
Post a Comment