No Big Deal Meeting With Petroleum Minister – Abubakar

Former head of state, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, has refuted insinuations making the rounds that his meeting with the minister of petroleum resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, had something to do with the lobby for him to intercede on her behalf as some online media have been circulating.

Abubakar who is the chairman of National Peace Committee explained that by virtue of his responsibility, he had been meeting with several people recently, including President Goodluck Jonathan and some of his key ministers.
Speaking to journalists after meeting with the president at the Presidential Villa Said;
 “I think people are just trying to be mischievous. I have been meeting with a lot of people and a lot of ministers in the course of this transition. So, there is nothing strange in me meeting with anybody.
“Go through your records to see the number of meetings I have been engaging in; I don’t know why the last one would be a subject of media chat.
“This is not the first time I have been meeting her (petroleum Minister) and a number of ministers so I don’t see what the whole hullabaloo is all about. People are just being mischievious”.
According to a Leadership report,the  petroleum minister had  incidentally driven into the Presidential Villa and went straight into the President’s Office minutes after Abubakar arrived for a meeting with the president.
Abubakar said, “As the chairman of the peace committee, there is always interaction between the incoming president and President Jonathan in order to ensure peace. We have been able to get it sustained. So, naturally I’m here to touch base with him and also to give him a report of what the committee has been doing.
“I’m not serving as intermediary. I told you I’m coming here as the chairman, Peace Committee and naturally, we have to interact; I went to see Gen. Buhari and I also saw the president all in an effort to make sure that this transition goes on smoothly and we maintain the peace”.