TheCable

Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, is not interested in contesting the governorship election of Delta state.

A socio-political group known as The Conscience of the Niger (TCN) said this in reaction to the campaign posters of the minister pasted in some parts of Abuja.

In a statement issued by Mitai Okeroghene, leader of TCN, the group warned those insinuating that Kachikwu is interested in the 2019 election to desist from trying to discredit him.

He added that it was high time the mischief was addressed, owing to the implications for Kachikwu’s current posting.

The group said it could not explain the attack on the minister, whom it described as a man who deserves support.

“Dr. Kachikwu is a technocrat and not a politician and has not in any form or shape shown indications of wanting to contest election, and so, it stands to reason that those behind his posters flooding Abuja have a sinister plot to achieve and their message is also clearly directed at their target audience, hence, the choice of Abuja as their location for the posters” the statement read.

“For the sake of argument, let us admit that Dr Kachikwu has an interest in the governorship of Delta State, is Abuja the place to start pasting posters? What is the correlation between Abuja and Delta governorship? But, of course, they want to insinuate that he is seeking the Abuja blessing, which of course invalidates the whole idea.

“This is why we have come out to state for emphasis and for the umpteenth time that Dr. Kachikwu is not interested in the governorship of Delta or any other elective political office as he currently has a more challenging and critical national assignment, which he has been able to discharge creditably well in the last over a year in spite of the attendant challenges in that office.

“Nothing can explain the attack on Dr Kachikwu because as far as we are concerned, this is an attack on the career of a man, who is focused and determined to make a change in the best way possible and as permitted within the limitations of his office. He deserves support and commendation and not to make him appear unduly ambitious or losing sight of his current brief.

“But if this is targeted at influencing the rumoured imminent cabinet reshuffle by those who find his ongoing reforms in the system discomforting or a move by those who want to mount pressure on him run for Delta governorship, it is dead on arrival, because Dr. Kachikwu is not oblivious of the weight of the assignment on his hands and is leaving nothing to chance in making sure that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari succeeds.”