The sack, last Friday, of Engr. Andrew Yakubu as Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has been described as a betrayal of his home state, Kaduna.

The Kaduna Sate APC Justice Forum said in a statement issued yesterday in Kaduna that it views Yakubu’s unceremonious removal by President Goodluck Jonathan “as the height of betrayal of the people of Kaduna State and particularly the Southern Kaduna Senatorial District that stood firmly behind the PDP since 1999.”

The Forum in the statement signed by its Secretary, Barrister Mohammed Musa Soba, said: “We are aware that Mr. Yakubu had planned to organise a solidarity rally for President Jonathan in Southern Kaduna Senatorial District last Saturday without involving the Vice-President, Kaduna State Governor and the Senator representing Southern Kaduna Senatorial District. The sack however came before the date of the proposed rally, thereby bringing the rally to a terminal end. “We are yet to understand how the tenure of the Director General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Sani Sidi, a close political ally of Vice-President Namadi whose tenure has been characterised by suspicious and dubious disbursement of relief materials to disaster victims with no positive impact, was renewed for another term of four years while Yakubu was sacked before the expiration of his tenure as NNPC GMD.

“The unceremonious removal of Mr. Yakubu has exposed the contradictions within the PDP political family in which godfatherism and negative political backstabbing have taken the centre stage against equity, fairness and sense of political decency. No reason was adduced for Yakubu’s removal because none could be justified in view of the fact that Yakubu has one more year for his tenure to expire either by reason of reaching the mandatory 60 years of age or putting in 35 years in service.

“The Kaduna APC Justice Forum therefore condemns the premature removal of the son of Kaduna State, Engr. Andrew Yakubu, which portrays the PDP as unjust and insensitive to the political solidarity and patronage it enjoys from the good people of Southern Kaduna. If this is the definition of PDP’s sense of equity, fairness and justice, we may as well conclude that it does not pay to patronise a political party with ill-motive and unfair treatment of its supporters and sympathisers as the PDP.”

•Photo shows former NNPC GMD, Engr. Andrew Yakubu.