Delta APC Condemns Alleged Attack On Petroleum, NDA Ministers
Delta State chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC), Prophet Jones Ode Erue, has condemn in its entirety what he described as “blackmail” of the Minister for States for Petroleum, Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Nguru Usani Nguru by a member of the party in the state, one Ambassador Young Piro.
Speaking to newsmen in his office Thursday in Asaba, the chairman claimed that Piro, has resorted to blackmail of the Minister of Petroleum when he declined offering contract of lifting petroleum products as he (Kachikwu) is not the one in charge.
He revealed that the Minister has put calls across to him to call the young man to order saying that the allegation of linking the Minister to the recent threats by the Niger Delta Avengers to blow up oil and gas facilities in the region which was widely criticized was untrue.
“the recent one that comes to mind, is the one by the Niger Delta Coalition that accused the minister of state, petroleum Resources, Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachukwu and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Nguru Usani Nguru, of complexity in the renewed threat of the Niger Delta Avengers to renew bombing of crude oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta Region”.
He disclosed that the founder of the group, Young Piro, hide under the authority of the Youth Leader of the party to call for youth meeting in Bomadi, “which I called the attention of the youth leader to stop that nonsense because the party will not take lawlessness in whatever form it comes”.
He said gone are the days where people struggle with the issue of legitimacy, “my exco is the known exco of this party and we speak on behalf of the party”, he stressed.
While saying, young Piro made the allegation in a statement on Friday in Abuja, he said, “this is an unfortunate statement that the party will take exception to”, pointing out that both ministers have stood on the party of peace in ensuring that peace returns to the region.
He said the refusal of the Ministers to grant their requests led to the blackmail which they have resorted to, promising that the party would not accept such unscrupulous elements in their midst.
“Since they could not get it from the back door, they want to attack their personalities. The party frowns at this and we will no longer tolerate it”.
According to him, “through the Deputy Chairman of the party, Cyril Ebiye Ogordor, we immediately invited the so self-styled ambassador Young Piro to appear before the SWC this morning by 10: 00am. He flaw the order of the party because he knows that what he has done is standing down the truth, wanting to use a means to defame personalities from this region especially the Minister that represents this state in order to get something by blackmail”, noting that the eras of blackmails were gone.
“We want to world to know that Young Piro is a faceless human being, his group is a faceless group and security should investigate him. Let him tell us how he got his information and we should not sweep them under the carpet”, he charged.
He reiterated that Young Piro cannot speak for the people neither the state and “he has no such integrity as he claimed to have and we want the public to know that those who are working for the peace of the region shouldn’t be labeled as enemies of the region”.
He called on all and sundry to disregard the information of Young Piro just as he maintained that, “security should investigate him and know where he got his information”.
He said the Young Piro was invited to give explanation on his statement, “we have sent to his chairman, we want to initiate a disciplinary action to follow immediately because this invitation was based on this and we wanted him to make an explanation why disciplinary action should not be taken against him, stressing that his failure to appear, the party would follow its constitution, “because anything that brings disrepute to the party is seen as anti-party”.
Asked if he has faith in the newly constituted Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC) led by Mike Ogbodu and if his party would have a very successful local government elections, he said, “we are on ground more than the PDP, we are more popular and more acceptable, we know that the people have finished with the PDP because the hardship is too much”,
He said the three states sharing borders with Delta have lesser allocations but are ten times developed than Delta, “it saddens one’s mind. PDP knows that they have failed”, saying that the party was coming out to defeat the PDP in their own game
Meanwhile, the Deputy Chairman of the Party, Cyril Ebiye Ogordor, also used the medium to advise the Director-General (DG) of the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), Osita Anthony Obuloma, to refrain from the alleged sponsorship of opposition against the party in the forthcoming local government election scheduled for 6 January 2018.