Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, has spoken on his reported ambition to run in the 2019 governorship election under the All Progressives Congress, APC, platform in Delta State.

The Minister debunked the rumour while speaking with newsmen in Abuja, saying the report was “fictitious, baseless and mischievous.”

Kachikwu added that not only do the rumour not reflect his current thinking as a minister in one of the sensitive ministries in Nigeria, but that they also do great disservice to the current efforts to fix the challenges in Nigeria’s petroleum sector.

He said that the current administration was taking definite steps to ensure that the challenges which resulted in long queues at the fuel stations become history.

He added, “The enormity of the problems the current administration met on ground in the petroleum sector is one that requires a great deal of focus and commitment to tackle and by God’s grace, we will get there.

“So we can do without some of these distractions that blow hot air and heat up the polity without addressing the immediate needs of the citizenry.

“At the moment we need to support Mr. President in his drive to reform the petroleum sector, so putting unnecessary pressure on those directly working with him will not only distract but could delay the process as, given the enormity of the problems, all hands must be on deck to achieve the kind of reform needed in the sector.”

The Delta-born politician maintained that as far as he is concerned, the so-called ambition exists only in the figment of the imagination of those he described as “political jobbers” who he said were out to distract him from his current responsibilities as delegated to him by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Kachikwu further warned those behind the reports to leave him out of their local politics and urged them to seek their clientele elsewhere and allow him to concentrate more on his current national assignment in Abuja.