Group says minister wasn't involved in N3.8B fraud

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A report by 10exclusive, an online news portal, had accused Kachikwu of supervising a N3.8B fraud.

However, TCN described the allegations as contained in the report as not only unfounded, it added that "there were the handiwork of power hawks and mischief makers, who are determined to discredit and blemish the oil minister for obvious reasons".

10exclusive had recently reported that President Muhammadu Buhari who is tending to his health in a London apartment, has been having sleepless nights over Kachikwu’s mis-management of the oil ministry.

According to the story, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo’s recent visit to London was not unconnected to issues in the petroleum ministry, especially bordering on allegations of corruption against Kachikwu.

The report also claimed that Kachikwu has been using his younger brother, Dumebi Kachikwu, as front in many illicit transactions in the downstream and upstream sectors.

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10exclusive writes that Kachikwu became exposed after the sum of N3.8B was allegedly received by Dumebi in exchange for a marginal oil field in the oil rich Niger Delta region.

In light of the foregoing, the news portal reported that the president had concluded plans to sack Kachikwu from his cabinet.

However in a late night statement sent to Pulse, TCN leader, Mitai Okeroghene, said the attempt to discredit Kachikwu was an advanced and well-intended ploy by some persons within the corridors of power, who had become uncomfortable with some of the feats he had recorded in the ministry.

Okeroghene also added that Kachikwu is not the kind of man to have his fingers soiled in illicit deals.

Okeroghene said: “First, there were no marginal fields granted by Kachikwu or anyone since the Muhammadu Buhari administration came on board and as such, the allegations remain the figment of the imagination of those behind the attacks against Kachikwu.”

Continuing, he contended that the power to grant marginal field resided with the minister of petroleum, in which case, the president and not the minister of state, adding that the attacks, as far as he was concerned, was a subtle attempt to discredit the president and not Kachikwu.

“But unfortunately for them, a man of Dr. Kachikwu’s standing, who did so much to institute transparency in the oil sector and with enviable international pedigree could not succumb to such corruption rascality. So, those trying aimlessly to blemish the person and credibility of the minister need a review of strategy.

“One would have expected that people, who believe in the veracity of their accusations, would rather show their faces by taking a direct report to the appropriate agencies with sufficient facts to carry out its investigation. Indeed, the whistleblowing policy of the federal government creates an incentive for this, so, why resort to blogs to blackmail the minister.

“We are not unaware that all these attacks are not unconnected to the purported cabinet reshuffle and until the planned reshuffling is over, these faceless jobbers, whose whole lives revolve around corruption and blackmail, will continue to target Dr. Kachikwu for being too drastic in his resolve to salvage the oil industry,” he added.

He, therefore, maintained that the “attacks on Dr. Kachikwu are the orchestrations by some powerful persons in the system and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), who are determined to see that Kachikwu is shown the way out, because they are uncomfortable with his cutting-edge reforms in the ministry.”