Diezani |
Abuja—Minister of
Petroleum Resources, Deziani Allison Maduekwe, has denied media reports that
she was seeking asylum in some foreign countriesAddressing
state House correspondents after yesterday’s Federal Executive Council, the
Minister said she was not leaving the country, adding that she had no reason to
do so.
She blamed what she described as
consistent malicious and libellous attacks on her person on the reforms she
brought about in the oil and gas sector in the country.
The minister said: “Let me state it
clearly for the records that Nigeria is my country and am not going anywhere. I
love my country and I do think that I have done the best for my country and I
would also like to point out that these malicious, malevolence, vindictive
libels coming out of places like Osun
Defender and other
faceless online and other entities need to stop.
“For everything that has a beginning
there is an end and that is not a surprise. What is the surprise is the sort of
malevolence bordering on personal malicious libel to my person during this
period of time.
‘’I do believe that I have done the
best for Nigeria in this job and I have attained many firsts in the history of
oil and gas, especially in the reforms that we have done. In this period of
time, I have stepped on many big toes, particularly the feet of the cabal in
the industry when we came in.
‘’I have said severally that we will
open up the industry to all Nigerians and we have, but that is not to the
pleasure of certain cabal. And I have been continuously maligned because
of this and we have taken millions and in fact, billions of dollars out of the
hands of multinationals and their sub-contractors and put them in the hands of
Nigerians through Nigerian content.
‘’Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians
have come into the oil and gas industry because of our reforms.
“Quite frankly, I think as
unprecedented as it is, it does not please everybody and that cannot be helped,
but let us remember the unprecedented reforms that have happened in the oil
industry during our time, such as major gas reforms, the Petroleum Industry
Bill, which has been completely revised, reformed and put into the hands of
members of the National Assembly where it has languished for two years.”
On allegation that she was seeking the
intervention of prominent Nigerians, especially former Head of State, General
Abdulsalami Abubakar, to protect her from being held accountable for some of her
actions in office, the minister said there was no truth in the allegation.
She said: “I believe that Gen.
Abdulsalami has already called it unnecessary mischief.”
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