Group mounts pressure on Buhari to sack Akpabio


A socio-cultural group, Niger Delta Development Initiative (NDDI) is said to be mounting pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio.

The group agitation is based on reports   that Akpabio has allegedly hijacked the functions of Commission in violation of the spirit and letters of the enabling Law that set up NDDC ACT 2007.

In a petition signed by the duo The President and  Secretary of the group, Chief Ebikalome Tonye Anselm and Comrade Johnson Oghenekevbe  titled: "The need to stop the manipulation of the Management of NDDC against the Law" where they appealed to President Buhari to urgently constitute a legally recognized Board and Management ― 16-months after members of the Board who are yet to be inaugurated, were appointed and cleared by the Senate.

The Niger Delta Stakeholders who described the development as sickening, accused the Minister of manipulating the Commission from been led by an Interim Management Committee (IMC) to a Sole Administratorship with his political protégé as beneficiary in contravention of   Section 2 of the NDDC (Establishment etc) Act of 2007, which defines the functions and composition of membership of the Governing Board of the Commission among the nine oil producing States and the representatives of relevant Ministries.

It further expressed worry over the setback the absence of NDDC Board has cost Nigeria people who have not enjoyed stability in its operations after a short stay of Ibim Seminatari to Egba/Obong Nsuma Ekere-led Board of NDDC till the ascension of Chief Akpabio as a result of the manipulation of the Commission was meant to serve without a Governing Board.

"Mr. President, we agree that there is a fundamental basis for probing into activities of the Commission, but we are worried that such exercise cannot obliterate the legal foundation upon which the Commission is founded.

"For the avoidance of doubt, your Excellency, we are of the firm view that over the NDDC are nothing short of an assault not only on established legal framework Governing the Management of the Commission, but an assault on the sensibility of the people of Niger Delta and nine member States of the Commission. This has continued despite the cacophony of voices that have risen against the decapitation of the Commission by the Ministry", the group lamented.

While urging President Muhammadu Buhari not to allow himself to be goaded into sustaining illegalities in one the interventionist agencies in which huge appropriations are been made annually, urged him to shun distractions and "institute a legally recognized Board and Management which he had appointed in August 2019.

It however expressed dismay over the manner in which the Management of NDDC is being "manipulated to the extent that even court orders are now been manufactured to pave way for the lackey of the Minister to assume the sole leadership of the Commission" ― despite the litany of allegations of corrupt practices which have been made by several persons and groups across a broad spectrum against the spirit and letters of the enabling Law that set up the Commission".

The body also accused the Minister of wrongly advising President Muhammadu Buhari against the inauguration whose main objective is to join other compatriots to advance the cause of development of the Niger Delta in particular and Nigeria in general.

It recalled how a Federal High court sitting in Abuja on the 20th day of January 2021, in suit No. FHC/ABJ/617/2020 Between the Incorporated Trustees of Forum for Accountability and Good Governance made a very startling revelation that it never granted any interim injunction to the Pondei-led Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC", which had been dissolved by the President before its supposed lifespan in December 2020 and thereafter directed the most Senior Director should assume in capacity of a Sole Administrator based on the vacuum that was created in the development as it was widely reported on December 12, 2020, amidst protests and litigations by the various interest groups and Stakeholders in the polity on account of gross and further violation of the NDDC Act.

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