NDDC: Selfish Politicians from N’Delta Behind Delay in Board Appointment, Say Groups

*Threaten protest, issue seven-day ultimatum
Deji Elumoye, Udora Orizu in Abuja and Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa

Ijaw youths from the nine states in the Niger Delta region have accused those they described as selfish politicians including the ministers from the region, as being responsible for the delay in the constitution of the substantive board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)

The Ijaw youths under the umbrella body of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) worldwide, said delay was caused by the power struggle and open display of greed by the ministers over who becomes the Managing Director of the Commission.

The IYC in a statement issued in Yenagoa, by its National spokesman, Ebilade Ekerefe, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to shun the alleged greedy ministers and politicians and immediately up the substantive board of the NDDC.

Ebilade tasked Buhari not to allow the ministers to undermine his efforts in the Niger Delta as well as frustrate the existing peace that the region had enjoyed for some time now.

He said, “It has come to the notice of the entire youths of the region that these ministers and some high profile members of the National Assembly from the region are engaged in selfish battles over the choice of who mount the saddle of leadership in the NDDC. These politicians are trying to usurp the powers of the President to foist a board that will work for their personal interest and not that of the region.”

Ekerefe noted that the entire Ijaw nation was angry and disappointed at the conduct of the politicians and were ready to unveil their true identity if they don’t desist from their evil ways.

“Is it not enough that President Buhari has refused to publish the audit report where their names and that of their cronies are evidently visible as part of those who ferried away the development fund voted for the region under the NDDC despite calls from stakeholders to publish the report?

“We are warning them that if they refuse to allow President Buhari set up the board with their unnecessary power tussles, the Ijaw youths will convene an enlarged meeting where their names will be read out and necessary sanctions served them.

“These anti-Niger Delta elements should stop pulling resources together and wasting time and energy to lobby the presidency for their preferred choice.

“While we are calling for the appointment of an Ijaw (a Bayelsan to be precise) as a substantive Managing Director (MD) of the Niger Delta Development Commission, some greedy vultures who live to feed fat in the rot taking place at the commission as a result of their personal greed and interest, are now using the weight of their high profile political appointments to truncate the efforts, all in the suspicion that those who may emerge may not be their loyalists.

“These deviant Niger Delta leaders who see the NDDC as their Cash-cow, and are now bent on doing anything to frustrate the president from appointing a substantive Board of the NDDC so long as top management officers, especially the MD, would not be stooge or pawn nominated by them to continue their siphoning of the Commonwealth of Niger Delta people and to fund the machinery of their 2023 political ambitions,” the IYC spokesman stated.

In a related development, another group, the 21st Century Youths of Niger Delta and Agitators with Conscience (21st CYNDAC) has threatened to commence protest in Abuja, if the federal government fails to inaugurate the substantive board for the NDDC within seven days.

The group which said it arrived at the decision after an exhaustive meeting and deliberation at the weekend, queried why the affairs of the commission were still being run by a Sole Administrator after the conclusion and submission of the forensic audit.

In a communique issued after the meeting and signed by its Leader, Izon Ebi, the group called on the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio to explain why the substantive board of the commission had not been inaugurated after weeks of the submission of the forensic audit report to the federal government.

The Niger Delta group also demanded that the minister should go a step further to clarify and upholds his integrity on the bogus wealthy allegations of bribery and corruption levelled against him from the start of the forensic audit to this present moment, noting that the allegations were too wealthy to ignore if the forensic audit report should be taken seriously.

It further called on the minister to publish report of the forensic audit to the public and as well publish funds received from the federal government and IOCs to the NDDC since his inception as the supervising Minister of the NDDC.

The statement read: “The 21st CYNDAC and other like minds and youths organisations have resolved to ask some pertinent questions and if answers are not given after seven days, the 21st century youths and other like minds and youths of the Niger Delta will be forced to come down to Abuja with our numbers for a peaceful protest to ask of who’s benefit the continued running of the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC by a sole Administrator after the conclusion and submission of the forensic audit of the commission.

“The 21st CYNDAC and Niger Deltans want to know how much was received and how it was spent; with proof and evidence of jobs / projects executed and paid for, because these are the reasons why the forensic audit was instituted in the first place.

“We therefore use this medium to advise President Muhammadu Buhari to restore a lasting peace in the Niger Delta by the immediate inauguration of the substantive board of the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC as a legacy and achievements as the president of the federal Republic of Nigeria.”