Kachikwu: A militant threatened me on phone

Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, on Tuesday revealed how he received threats from a militant.

Kachikwu, who was one of the ministers that attended the federal government’s town hall meeting which held in Kaduna state, lamented the effect of attacks on oil installations.

He said described the attacks as a drain on the country’s resources, but said the government was on top of the situation.

“Last week, my phone number was published in Sahara Reporters and then I began to get millions of phone calls,” he said.

“One of the first phone calls I took not knowing who was calling me was from a militant somewhere and when I picked up the phone, he said ‘Are you the minister of petroleum’, I said yes.

“He said I dey go blow pipeline tomorrow, and I said why would you do that my brother if you love Nigerians? He said ‘are you sure you are the minister’, I said yes.

“Then he said for being so humble, I will drop the plan. That’s the kind of environment under which we operate.”

He urged the populace not to be discouraged by the current challenges facing the country, saying the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration is capable of turning the situation around for the better.

“The reality of our situation is that wherever I turn when I was appointed, I had problems. If I turn to the refineries when I joined in October, they were not working. If I turned to the pipelines, they were non-existent,” he said.

“But I wasn’t discouraged, because if I had problems, what will I say of a man who at his age took over the mantle of this country? His Excellency, the president so that gave me a lot of encouragement.”

Other ministers at the meeting were Lai Mohammed,(information and culture), Kayode Fayemi (solid minerals), Abdulrahman Dambazau (interior), Adebayo Shittu (communications), and Zainab Ahmed (state for budget and national planning).

Nasir el-Rufai, Kaduna state governor, was also in attendance.