Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu has responded to strong protests for his resignation from the helm of affairs in the oil sector in Nigeria.
Ibe Kachikwu
The Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu on Tuesday, March 29 said that he will not resign his position as minister as he still had a lot of work to do in the petroleum indstry.
The minister made this disclosure as his closing remarks while briefing the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) on the lingering scarcity of petroleum products.
“All those planning to come to Abuja for a protest should save their fuel, I am not going to resign, I have a lot of work to do,” he said.
The minister added that he did assume the position to be minister of petroleum in order to create scarcity. He added that he would work hard to find lasting solutions to the problems in the industry.
He stressed that he was pained as much as many Nigerians were that the country still suffered petroleum scarcity in spite of being one of the largest producers of crude in Nigeria.
Different groups including the South South All Progressives Congress, APC and some Civil Society Organiations have called for the minister’s resignation.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has urged the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC to ensure there is local sufficiency of petroleum products due to the lingering fuel scarcity across the country.
In a related development, the National Bureau of Statistics recently published the average prices of petrol in Nigeria.
According to the information released, the highest price is in Yobe state while the lowest is in Edo state.