A frontline group in southern Kaduna State, under the auspices of Gurara Forum,
yesterday demanded the immediate sack of Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, following the sack of their son, Andrew Yakubu, former group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
Addressing a news conference in Kaduna, Chancellor and Secretary General of Gurara Forum, Vincent Bodam and Jerry Adams, said, respectively, that southern Kaduna viewed the sack of the ex- NNPC boss as a dishonor, considering their bloc votes to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, since 1999.
The group alleged that the petroleum minister had hijacked the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
They explained that the former NNPC boss had implemented transformation agenda at the corporation where the Strategic Business Units, SBU, transited from cost centres to profit centres, adding that refineries were working at 50 percent minimum capacity, augmenting imports of petroleum products and saving the country huge amounts of foreign exchange.
According to the forum’s spokesperson, “We have hitherto been unbelieving of the rumours making the rounds that the government of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has been hijacked and pocketed by the minister of Petroleum Resources. But we are now forced to believe those rumours. It is apparent that the erstwhile group managing director of the NNPC, Engr Andrew Laah Yakubu, was in a no-love loss situation with his former boss, the minister of Petroleum.
“In just four years, (we have had) four GMDs as she is now working with the 5th GMD which is drawing the ire of many concerned citizens, as this minister is wasting the country’s lean resources spent in training these high calibre professionals. The appointment of the present GMD smacks of mischief and suspicion as he has retired but has now been contracted to stay on obviously to do the minister’s bidding.
“Nigerians deserve to know the basis for the constant replacements of GMDs at the corporation. This minister cannot run a nation’s asset like her personal estate which obviously is with the full backing and support of Mr President. This inexplicable aberration is an embarrassment to all well meaning Nigerians.
We therefore call on Mr President to sack the minister immediately like many concerned Nigerians have appealed before now, as the general feeling is that Mrs Alison-Madueke has hijacked this administration to the detriment of the country at large.”
