On NDDC, Azogu-Led OMPALAN Doesn’t Speak for the Niger Delta

As Niger Deltans eagerly await the fulfilment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s promise to inaugurate NDDC’s Senate-screened substantive Board upon submission of the forensic audit report, Igonibo Danagogo and Ofem Okang denounce a so-called OMPALAN, led by one Bishop Udo Azogu for its deliberate falsehood in stating that the Board, which has not yet been inaugurated was dissolved, while also reminding stakeholders that there is no court order against the 2019 Senate-confirmed Board

Our attention has been drawn to a recent newspaper report purported to have been made by a body styling itself as The Oil Mineral Producing Areas Landlords Association of Nigeria, OMPALAN, and signed by one Bishop Udo Azogu requesting Mr. President to constitute a new Board for the NDDC rather than inaugurating the NDDC Board which Mr. President appointed in October 2019 and confirmed by the Nigerian Senate on November 5, 2019 and has been awaiting inauguration since then. The said Bishop Azogu went ahead to state that the “Board that was dissolved by the President on the grounds of incompetence cannot be retained and inaugurated”. This is false.

The substantive NDDC board has already been screened by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and, was, in fact, on the verge of assuming duties at the commission before its inauguration was put on hold for the now concluded forensic audit to take place.

We can state authoritatively that the confirmed board of the NDDC was never dissolved by President Buhari because the board had not even been inaugurated in the first place and, even at that, a board that had not been allowed to work for even a single day could not possibly be dissolved on grounds of incompetence as claimed by the said Bishop Azogu of the so-called OMPALAN.

This publication credited to the so-called OMPALAN, is a most toxic cocktail of shameful lies and barefaced falsehoods.

Even more lamentable is the fact that the so-called OMPALAN is obviously an exercise in political hustling being fronted by one Bishop Azogu, a self-styled “prophet” and “man of God” who had most ridiculously and highly irresponsibly once prophesied on October 1, 2020 that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo would be removed from office before 2023!

This same Azogu had in that same year 2020 also predicted victory for Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu in the last Edo Governorship election, and when Ize-Iyamu lost, he continued to prophesy that Ize-Iyamu would still become Governor by court decision! We all know how that turned out.

It is truly sad that the likes of Azogu and phantom associations like OMPALAN are the latest ruses those hell-bent on continuing with illegality and mismanagement of the collective property of the Niger Deltan people would be turning to in their desperation.

We find it most unfortunate that these highly vexatious stunts are being pulled for personal aggrandizement and private gain with scant concern for the sustenance of the fragile peace of the Niger Delta region or regard for the feelings and sensibilities of its people who have had to put up with an NDDC they have neither representation in nor, accountability from.

The much touted forensic audit, the reason given for the delay in inaugurating the NDDC board has been concluded.

Mr. President had assured the people of the Niger Delta that the board he had earlier constituted and had already been confirmed by the Senate, would be inaugurated immediately the forensic audit was concluded.

On the 24th day of June 2021, while receiving the Ijaw National Congress at the State House in Abuja, President Buhari said that the NDDC Board would be inaugurated as soon as the forensic audit report is submitted and accepted.

The President specifically said: ‘‘Based on the mismanagement that had previously bedeviled the NDDC, a forensic audit was set up and the result is expected by the end of July, 2021. I want to assure you that as soon as the forensic audit report is submitted and accepted, the NDDC Board will be inaugurated”

On Azogu’s baseless and ludicrous claim of litigations against the Board inauguration, it is on record that there is also no court order or judgement against the inauguration of the Board appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari since it was confirmed by the Senate on November 5, 2019.

The truth is that the so-called claims and suits referred to by Azogu and his nondescript cohorts have not been upheld anywhere because they are false claims.

All these truly shameful shenanigans machinated to distract our President from doing the right thing must stop forthwith and the substantive board of the NDDC immediately inaugurated as promised by President Buhari.

QUOTE

We find it most unfortunate that these highly vexatious stunts are being pulled for personal aggrandizement and private gain with scant concern for the sustenance of the fragile peace of the Niger Delta region or regard for the feelings and sensibilities of its people who have had to put up with an NDDC they have neither representation in nor, accountability from

*Igonibo Danagogo is the National President and Ofem Okang, National Secretary of the Coalition for the Restoration of Legality in the NDDC