NDDC: South-South elders make case for Bayelsa.

 The South-South Elders Progressive Forum has accused the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), of plotting to favour Edo State over Bayelsa State in the appointment of a Managing Director for the Niger Delta Development Commission.

 

SSEPF also accused the AGF of trying to mislead the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on the constitution of a substantive board for the NDDC.

 

The forum said the AGF was creating confusion by misinterpreting to the Presidency the provisions of Section 12 (1) of the NDDC Act 2000 as it relates to the appointment of the agency’s managing director.

 

The South-South elders warned against setting the Niger Delta region on fire.

 

This was contained in a statement titled, ‘NDDC: Don’t set Niger Delta on Fire, South-South elders warn Malami… Accuse AGF of misleading Buhari on NDDC Act.’

 

The statement was signed by the forum’s Chairman, Dr. Promise Okpolo; and Coordinator, Community Relations, Chief Anderson Etiewo, and made available to newsmen on Sunday.

 

The elders argued that the Act that established the commission did not envisage an interim management.

 

The statement read in part, “When the pioneer managing director of the commission, Mr Godwin Omene, who hails from Delta State was removed midterm in 2003, he was replaced by Mr Emmanuel Aguariavwodo, also from Delta State, who later resigned and Alaibe was uplifted from EDFA to complete the tenure.

 

“Again, when on September 14, 2011, Mr Chibuzor Ugwoha, an indigene of Rivers State, was removed as the managing director of the commission, he was replaced with Mr Christian Oboh, who hails from the same community with Ugwoha.

 

“In 2013, Mr Bassey Dan Abia from Akwa Ibom State was appointed managing director of the NDDC by President Goodluck Jonathan. Though he was sacked before the end of his four year tenure and replaced in 2015 with Mrs Ibim Semenitari in acting capacity by Buhari, Mr Isima Ekere, also from Akwa Ibom State, was appointed on November 1, 2016 to complete Dan Abia’s tenure. Ekere exited office at the end of 2018, which was end of a substantive and lawfully constituted board for the NDDC.

 

“It is pertinent to note with emphasis that neither Prof. Nelson Brambaifa, who was appointed acting managing director in January 2019, nor Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei, also appointed acting managing director on February 20, 2020 to head an Interim Management Committee for a forensic audit of the commission ordered by Buhari, were appointed substantive managing directors in a properly and duly constituted board in accordance with the provisions of the NDDC Act. It is a fact that Prof. Pondei was the fifth acting managing director of the commission within a period of one year.”

 

The forum argued that Brambaifa and Pondei, both from Bayelsa State, were never appointed managing directors in a statutorily constituted substantive board.

 

It added that Delta, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, which are key crude oil producers, have had at least two indigenes from each of the three states appointed as substantive managing directors of the NDDC on a duly constituted board.

 

It regretted that Bayelsa State, which is also in the league of the four major oil producing states in the region, has never had an indigene appointed as a substantive managing director in a new board nor was anyone appointed to complete a full tenure after the two-year period Alaibe was upgraded to fill in the gap after Agwariavwodo’s exit.