NDDC Board: Group Threatens to Sue FG over Tenure Elongation

A group under the platform of Concerned Niger Deltans have threatened to sue the Federal Government over the reported elongation of the tenure of the current board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) from 2017 to 2019 if the decision is not reversed.

The group, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in what it described as an illegal and unlawful act, adding that the President should in the interest of justice to all Niger Deltans and for the peace of the region make an immediate reversal of the decision.

The threat which was contained in a protest letter to the president, also advised that the provisions of the law establishing the NDDC be strictly adhered to in resolving the dispute so as to ensure that the polity was not heated up.

The leader of the group, Prince Yekini Nabena, revealed how the leadership of the commission has rotated among the member states with Abia having the first shot from 2000 to 2004 under the chairmanship of Mr. Onyeama Ugochukwu.

He added that in 2013, the NDDC board rotated to Cross River State with Senator Bassey Ewa Henshaw as Chairman and in 2015, two years after, the board was dissolved by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari when it came to office.

The group, however, noted that the Buhari administration appointed a new board headed by Senator Ndoma Egba also from Cross River State with a clear and unambiguous mandate in writing, to complete the two-year tenure left for Cross River State.

The group, however, said that it was surprised with the news of the purported elongation of the Ndoma Egba tenure from the remaining two years to four years.

It maintained that the purported tenure elongation is unacceptable and indeed an affront to the good people of the Niger Delta region on the ground that the act violated section 5(3) of the NDDC Act 2000.