The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has debunked reports that he paid the medical and private jet bills for Yusuf Buhari’s treatment abroad.
Kachikwu disclosed this in an interview with ThisDay.
Recall that Yusuf, President Muhammadu Buhari’s only son, was involved in a power bike accident in December 2017.
Yusuf was initially treated at Cedarcrest Hospital, Abuja, before being flown to Germany for further medical attention.
After he returned to the country last week, rumours had circulated that Kachikwu, a former Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), funded his trip and treatment abroad.
But Kachikwu has come out to debunk the rumours.
He said his detractors were deliberately sponsoring the false claims against him.
The minister added that the same set of people were behind an earlier claim that he was seeking to vie for the position of governor of his state, Delta.
He said, “When you add these developments together, then you can see my stand that it is pointless debating with people, who delight in lowly fantasy. They cannot transcend the unfortunate stations of pulling others down.
“Theirs is not to add value but connive with the dissidents of the society to destroy ideas that are development-focused and minds that are progressively sculpted. I do not belong to that class and will therefore not be seen as joining issues with them.”
Dismissing the gubernatorial ambition rumour, he said, “I have refuted this story time and time again, and for the umpteenth time, I want to place it on the record that stories about my governorship bid are sponsored to achieve whatever result.
“But the truth is that such stories have nothing to do with me as a person and even curious is that the peddlers are very consistent, meaning it is a calculated falsehood being sold to the public.
“I might not have a grasp of why they are doing this, it is not totally true, however that I do not have a clue why they are traveling this route. Unfortunately, it is cheap and undeserving of my precious time.
“That I am denying it again does not mean in another one month or two, they would still not dust the story up again, modulate and spin it from yet another angle.
“What this means is that those behind the stories are not just idle, they are clearly people of small minds, who have nothing productive and engaging to do but have elected to be canon fodders in the hands of equally feeble minds to fester whatever sinister plans they have.”