Niger Delta Coalition Faults Kachikwu, Wants Buhari To Fire Him

A pan-Niger Delta group, Niger Delta-Northern Youth Coalition Worldwide, has accused the Minister of State, Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, of working to frustrate the reforms initiated by the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, and has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the minister.

President of the coalition, Prince Michael Ekamon, at a world press conference in Abuja on Thursday, accused Kachikwu of dereliction of duties if he had waited for over one year to voice his concerns.

“If the claim of the Honourable Minister, that for the past one year he has been accommodating the excesses of the GMD on such serious issues affecting the lives of Nigerians and the economy of this great nation, he should be fired for gross incompetence and maladministration,” Ekamon said.

The coalition also faulted the Minister of State for the leakage of the memo, noting that, “We urge Mr. President to as a matter of urgency investigate thoroughly the leakage of the memo to the press in the interest of his administration.

“The minister’s vituperations against Baru as contained in his letter could not be unconnected to his frustrations since the appointment of the incumbent GMD; otherwise as the chairman of the NNPC board, he would have treated the matter internally rather than doing a memo to Mr. President. Such action smacks of disloyalty to the person of Mr. President.”

They appealed to the president to give the GMD the free hand to carry on reforms in the NNPC, arguing that as an insider, he has the requisite wealth of experience to engineer the reforms as envisaged by President Buhari.

Ekamon stated that since Baru’s appointment to the NNPC, the country has witnessed efficiency in the supply of petroleum products nationwide, appointments of technocrats into the right positions, and renegotiating JVCs’ to Nigeria’s advantage.