A pressure group in the South-East, Ohanaeze Think Tank, has declared that those behind the calls for the removal of the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, are after President Bola Tinubu.
President Tinubu is the Minister of Petroleum Resources.
In a statement on Monday by Dr Azubuike Ajuluchukwu and Dr Cletus Akinyili, the Coordinator and the Deputy Coordinator, respectively in Enugu, the Ohanaeze group said such targeted attempts against the President would not work.
It maintained that the activities of the disbanded Ugochinyere-led committee investigating the NNPCL should also be probed.
While hailing the House for disbanding the committee, the group said: “It’s heartening that after a public outcry, the House of Representatives finally dissolved the so-called committee that was supposed to investigate the allegations against the Group CEO of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, by the group of 15 members of the House.
“But the matter should not end there. That committee of 15-man led by Rep. Ikenga Ugochinyere must also be investigated.”
They added that, “But for the swift intervention of about 120 members of the House, some persons were poised to impose their sinister agenda on the House and the Nigerian public.
“What is their interest in the Dangote Refinery? We align ourselves with the views of ‘1 Agenda’ that the calls for Kyari’s removal are hypocritical.
“He deserves commendation for his leadership and transformation of NNPC Ltd, increasing crude oil production from 800,000 bpd to 1.6 million bpd.
“We have every reason to suspect that the calls for Kyari’s removal are targeted at the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the petroleum minister.
“We, therefore, call on the House not to stop the dissolution of the ad-hoc committee but to also investigate the conduct of some of the members.”