Akwa Ibom State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has decried the recent low-performance rating of the Minister of Petroleum Resources (Gas), Obongemem Ekperikpe Ekpo, within his one-year in office, describing it as a bedlam of idle talks and baseless.
The position of the party was contained in a press statement endorsed by the State Publicity Secretary, Barr. Otobong Udo, and made available to Tribune Online in Uyo on Friday, entitled “Obongemem Ekperikpe Ekpo, Minister of Petroleum Resources (Gas), a State Performer, the statement noted that the assessment and critical analysis of these idle talks mainly from the quarters of detractors, motivated by the ‘bring him down’ syndrome for reasons best known to them, adding that it lacks merit, objectivity and completely found wanting in any empirical evidence to back up and support their findings.
“To start with, the party will like to ask these woeful assessors of the Minister’s performance these pertinent questions. Are they comparing the record of the present Minister with the records of the previous Ministers in the Ministry? Are they measuring the Hon. Minister’s performance with the template set by who so that their tick-off of items done by the Hon. Minister scores him below the benchmark?
“If they are not up to something sinister, they would have known that this is a virgin Ministry brought into existence by the commendable initiative of the present administration headed by His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) to free gas administration from petroleum for more effective management and utilization of the nation’s gas resources.
“In the President’s wisdom and magnanimity, he assigned Rt. Hon. Obongemem Ekperikpe Ekpo to take charge of the new Ministry which puts extra demand on the Hon. Minister in terms of nursing a new baby to adulthood.
“The true, objective, and sincere assessment of the Hon. Minister by the APC leadership, a platform upon which the present administration came into being and indeed all objective and sincere Nigerians, bestow on the Hon. Minister a scorecard of superlative performance as he keeps hitting the ground running by daily engaging and collaborating with international and local partners in the development and utilization of our abundant gas resources for the benefit of all Nigerians, since his assumption of office.
“The Party continues to be proud of the Hon. Minister in the execution of his duties in the service to his fatherland.
“To the idle and woeful assessors and their sponsors, the Party advises that they look elsewhere to ‘assess’ in their vain hope and belief that ‘brown envelopes’ may come their way which after all is their ultimate aim.
“The Hon. Minister should not be distracted as he continues to approach his duties with candour commitment and imaginativeness to our support and admiration,” the statement added.
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