I won’t resign, I have a lot to do –Kachikwu

The Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr Ibe Kachikwu, said on Tuesday in Abuja that he would not resign as he still had a lot of work to do. The minister said this as part of his closing remarks while briefing the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) on the lingering scarcity of petroleum products across the country. Different groups including the South South APC, NANS and some Civil Society Organisations have called for the minister’s resignation following his remark in Abuja during an interview with journalists last week Wednesday that fuel queues could not be eliminated before May, and that he was not a magician. The remark had also drawn the criticism of National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who said Kachikwu’s position amounted to insubordination to Nigerians who voted public office holders into their offices.

Kachikwu said: “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.’’ According to him, he did not accept to be minister of petroleum in order to create scarcity. The minister assured that he would work hard to find lasting solutions to the problems in the industry. Kachikwu said 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 oil in the world.

He said that the long queues in the country’s petrol stations would disappear on Monday, April 7, 2016. Kachikwu, who is also the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said: “By 6th or 7th April, the long queues in filing stations would disappear.” He also apologized to Nigerians over his statement that the biting fuel scarcity will linger till May