‘Buhari Is More Concerned About Rescuing Chibokgirls Than Oil Facilities’ says Kachickwu

The Minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has stated that the President Buhari-led administration is more concerned about rescuing the abducted Chibok schoolgirls than protecting of oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta. 

Kachikwu, who was speaking on CNN’s Quest Means Business on Monday night, said it is not true that the government is paying more attention to the protection of oil installations than to recovering the missing girls. 

A critic of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration had earlier said that the military was leaving the Northeast for the Niger Delta to guide pipelines, adding that this means “the oil is better than the human”. 

But the minister disagreed, saying; “not quite so, at all. On the contrary, since President Muhammadu Buhari resumed, I think his first steps were targeted at the northeast and the Chibok girls”. 

He continued: “If you remember, most of his first state visits were to neighbouring countries, trying to gather alignment among neighbouring countries military forces in fighting this issue, and the military has been engaged in that territory. 

“One of the crises the president had to inherit, was the fact that once he came in, he found that monies that were allocated to the military to be able to deal with these issues, were largely diverted, and he spent a lot of time trying to find funds. 

“He first had to deal with that problem, but once he dealt with that, the army has got more brisk in its business, however, we haven’t found the girls and its sorrowful for every Nigerian who thinks about it.

“I have children, the last thing I want is for people’s children to be in the forest abandoned, and we are doing everything we can, I sympathize with all parents who are in this situation, but the president hasn’t given upon this.”