By Abiola Olawale
The Niger Delta Development Initiative (NDDI), a socio-cultural pressure group, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to swear-in the screened and confirmed board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
In a letter signed by the President of the NDDI, Ebikalome Tonye Anselm, and the Secretary, Johnson Oghenekevbe, the pressure group canvassed for the intervention of President Buhari, as the commission is reportedly battling several illegalities.
The group also urged the President to address growing concerns by supervising officials over violation of the commission’s Act and Protocols. According to the group, some of the officials purportedly supervising the NDDC have usurped the functions of the commission in clear breach of the Act.
The petition reads, “Mr. President, we agree that there is a fundamental basis for probing into activities of the commission, but we are worried that such executive cannot obliterate the legal foundation upon which the commission is founded. For the avoidance of doubt, your Excellency, we are of the girl view that over the NDDC are nothing short of am assault not only on established legal framework governing the management of the commission, but an assault on the sensiblility of the people of Niger Delta and nine member states of the commission.
“This has continued despite the cacophony of voices that have risen against the decapitation of the commission by the ministry… The management of NDDC is manipulated to the extent that even court orders are now been manufactured to pave way for the lackey of the Minister to assume the sole leadership of the commission, despite the litany of allegations of corrupt practices which have been made by several persons and groups across a board spectrum against the spirit and letters of the enabling law that set up the commission.”
It would be recalled that following the dissolution of NDDC board members in 2019, for allegedly mismanagement of the affairs of the commission, President Buhari had sent new names as his nominees for screening and confirmation by the Senate. President Buhari had written to the Senate seeking the confirmation of the following nominees for the governing board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The letter which was subsequently read out by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, at the start of plenary. The NDDC’s Board nominees included the Chairman, Pius Odubu (Edo); Managing Director, Bernard O. Okumagba (Delta); Executive Director Projects, Otobong Ndem (Akwa Ibom); Executive Director Finance and Admin, Maxwell Okoh (Bayelsa); Delta State representative, Prophet Jones Erue; Chief Victor Ekhatar (Edo); Joy Yimebe Nunieh (Rivers); and Nwogu Nwogu Abia.
Others are Theodore A. Allison (Bayelsa); Victor Antai (Akwa Ibom); Maurice Effiwatt (Cross River); Olugbenga Elema Ondo); Uchegbu Chidiebere Kyrian (Imo); Northwest Rep, Aisha Murtala Muhammed (Kano); Northeast Rep, Ardo Zubairu (Adamawa) and Southwest Rep, Badmus Mutalib (Lagos).
Senate President Lawan then referred Buhari’s The letter to the Senate Committee on NDDC for screening as Lawan asked the Committee to report back after one week. Following that mandate, the Committee then screened and confirmed al the above persons except one in October, 2019. The Senate screened and confirmed all the appointees with Dr Pius Odubu and Olorogun Bernard Okumagba as Chairman and Managing Director of the commission, respectively.
However, the inauguration has been delayed following the appointment of an Interim Management Committee (IMC), headed by Prof. Daniel Pondei to run the affairs of the commission, pending the time that a forensic investigation of the commission would be concluded.
However, Buhari had on December 12, 2020 sacked the Pondei-led NDDC IMC, appointing an interim sole administrator following a court order which nullified Pobdei-led IMC as illegal. Following this development, many concerned Niger Delta people have weighed in and urged the President to rectify the anomalies.
