Kachikwu Campaign Posters: Desist or ‘incur the wrath of God’- Group warns
The Conscience of the Niger Delta, TCN, has warned those insinuating that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu will contest the 2019 governorship election to desist or “incur the wrath of God.”
TCN’s leader, Mitai Okeroghene said those linking the Minister to elective position in the state were out to cause mischief and frustrate Kachikwu from achieving his goal.
Okeroghene made these remarks while reacting to campaign posters of the Minister allegedly running for Delta State governorship election in Delta State.
In a statement he signed, the TCN leader said the Minister 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 over the last one year in spite of the attendant challenges in that office.”
Okeroghene, said it was not the first time the issue was being deliberately pushed out to test the waters and which had been dismissed a few times even by Dr. Kachikwu himself, but noted that the timing now reeked of mischief and must be addressed at once.
The TCN leader said those who want to discredit the “performing minister knew what they were doing by churning out ‘his campaign posters’ to make it appear as if he wanted to be governor of Delta State, knowing fvery well this has a lot of implications for his current posting.”
Okeroghene said, “Dr. Kachikwu is not stupid. He 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.
“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 was 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.”
He said the propensity to want to destroy others without any justification remains a major preoccupation of both the active and the passive players in this part of the world and invariably, the bane of underdevelopment in the country.
He said, “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.”
Disclosing that they have commenced investigation into those behind the campaign, the TCN leader warned that if they failed to desist from such act, they would be held liable.
“Is it a crime for a man to be adept at his work? It is surprising that after stabilising the sector and still cleansing it of its corrupt past, this is all that Kachikwu gets. But whatever creepy plans they are hatching, he is one man, who will leave government unblemished and very successful,” he said.
