Prevail on Buhari to Inaugurate NDDC Board, Monarch Urges NASS

Sylvester Idowu in Warri

The Ovie of Idjerhe kingdom, HRM Monday Whiskey Udurhie I, has urged the National Assembly to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to inaugurate, “the already screened and confirmed” board of the Niger Development Commission (NDDC).

Reacting to the continued delay in the inauguration of the interventionist agency’s board, the traditional ruler in an interview with THISDAY, yesterday, told the National Assembly to invoke the doctrine of necessity and stop the current “dance of shame” in the commission.

Advising the National Assembly not to undermine its constitutional functions, he argued that since the nominees were nominated by the president and were duly screened and confirmed by National Assembly, there was no other authority known to law that could stop their inauguration.

“Billions have been wasted and out rightly looted and more are still currently being looted and as a people, we cannot continue in this shameful and very disgraceful manner.

“The Niger Delta has not been so bad in the past 20 years of NDDC’s existence that one single individual in the name of Minister of Niger Delta Affairs will hijack the administrative structures of the interventionist agency working for socio-economic development of a sensitive region like the Niger Delta and entire nations leadership will go to sleep as if all is well,” he said.

The traditional rulers pleaded with the National Assembly members to convince President Buhari on the necessity of swearing the members of the board which had been cleared the national lawmakers.

“The federal government can no longer pretend that the unholy alliance between Godswill Akpabio and some principal officers of the federal government to ignite uncontrollable crisis is not known to it and as a traditional ruler I owe my people and the federation the testament of speaking truth to authority so that history will be kind to me and all the oppressed people of the region of Niger Delta.

“The National Assembly must now rise to the occasion to save the Niger Delta region from the sorry state of an individual who has deliberately decided to abandon his Ministerial responsibilities and took over the rulership of NDDC.

“The submission of controversial forensic audit report without the promised inauguration is an insult on the people of the entire oil and gas producing communities in Nigeria that must be corrected now by urgently inaugurating the long-overdue board as screened and confirmed by the National Assembly”, he added.