Group Alleges Plan to Delay Announcement of NDDC Board Members
Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
The Niger Delta Alliance for Economic Survival (NDAES) yesterday alleged that some staff and contractors with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) had perfected plans with some key officers of the National Assembly to frustrate the decision of the President Muhammadu Buhari to reconstitute the Board of the Commission.
In a statement by its President, Mr. Tubonemi Chibisi yesterday, the alliance said they had information that some management staff and big contractors of the NDDC had perfected plans to get the senate to sit on the list of the new board members to perpetrate the continuous balkanisation of the commission’s monthly allocation.
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs had hinted that a list of nominees for the NDDC Board had been submitted to the Senate.
The minister had assured that as soon as the Senate reconvened after their recess it would announce the list as directed by the president.
The statement said in part: “We have Information that there is a deliberate plot by the Senate to delay the announcement of the new list of the NDDC board nominees as directed by Mr President.
“We have been informed that some big contractors in collusion with the Acting Managing Director of the NDDC, a civil servant, have gone to reach an agreement with some persons in the Senate to continue to share the commission monthly allocation as was done during the time of the sacked Interim Administrator.”
Also, the group accused the Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs of complicity in the plan to sabotage the good intentions of the federal government.
It thus called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other security agencies to investigate the allegation in order to save the commission from further stealing of the commonwealth of the people by a few selfish enemies of the region.
The group said they would only regard the allegation as speculation until the Senate reconvene next week to deliberate on all the correspondence from President Buhari to the Senate.
