NDDC: Monarch Urges Inauguration Of Board Already Confirmed By Senate

The traditional ruler of Idjerhe Kingdom in Delta State, His Royal Majesty, Monday Whiskey, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to inaugurate the already screened and confirmed statutory board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) under the chairmanship of Dr. Pius Odubu and Managing Director, Olorogun Bernard Okumagba.

The monarch, while commending the President for his decisive step in removing Effiong Akwa as Sole Administrator of the interventionist Commission, however, requested that the Federal Government should urgently initiate the probe of finances under the sacked Sole Administrator of the NDDC), Mr. Effiong Okon Akwa.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Ovie of Idjerhe kingdom said he was pleased with the sack of the sole administrator of NDDC but said that the federal government should immediately inaugurate the screened and confirmed statutory board members of the agency, which have been on standby since November 2019.

“The sacking of the NDDC sole administrator is a welcome development that should be followed with immediate inauguration of the screened and confirmed statutory board of the NDDC under the Chairmanship of Dr. Pius Odubu and Managing Directorship of Olorogun Bernard Okumagba. The federal government should proceed further to probe the huge financial irregularities that bedeviled the interventionist agency while the sacked sole administrator was in charge,” he said.

The monarch stated that trying to do another set of nominations will not be fair to those who have waited for over three years, noting that constituting a new board will further delay developmental agenda of the region that has suffered so much in the past years.

The traditional ruler had earlier maintained that administering NDDC with a Sole Administrator was illegal and unknown to the NDDC Act, and therefore urged the inauguration of the Commission’s statutory board.

It will be recalled that President Buhari had forwarded to the Senate for confirmation the appointment of a board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) via a letter dated October 18, 2019.

Specifically, President Buhari in the letter sought the Senate’s confirmation for Dr Pius Odubu (Edo) as chairman of the NDDC Board, Chief Bernard Okumagba (Delta) as Managing Director, Engr Otobong Ndem (Akwa Ibom) as Executive Director, Projects, and Maxwell Oko (Bayelsa) as Executive Director, Finance and Administration. Others listed in the President’s letter of to the Senate included Prophet Jones Erue, representing Delta State, Chief Victor Ekhalor (Edo), Nwogu N Nwogu (Abia), Theodore A Allison (Bayelsa), Victor Antai (Akwa Ibom), Maurice Effiwatt (Cross River), Olugbenga Edema (Ondo), Hon Uchegbu Chidiebere Kyrian representing Imo state.

The rest are Aisha Murtala Mohammed from Kano state representing North West, Shuaib Ardo Zubairu from Adamawa representing North East and Ambassador Abdullahi M Bage from Nasarawa representing North Central, on the board respectively.

The president’s letter personally signed by him reads: “In accordance with the provision of Section 2(2)(a) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) (Establishment) Act, 2000, I write to forward, for confirmation by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the under listed nominees for appointment into the NDDC board, to occupy the positions indicated against their names.” President Buhari, in the letter, expressed hope that “the Senate will consider and confirm the nominees in the usual expeditious manner”.

Accordingly, the written request, which was read on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 by its President, Ahmad Lawan, was given expeditious consideration by the upper legislative chamber, which directed its standing committee on NDDC, to carry out screening exercise on all the nominees and report back within a week.

The Senate’s standing committee on Niger Delta Affairs carried out the screening exercise on 15 out of the 16 nominees on Thursday, October 31, 2019, upon which the Senate in plenary confirmed their appointments on November 5, 2019.

However, after the nominees were screened and confirmed by the Nigerian Senate on the 5th of November 2019, President Buhari asked that the inauguration of the Board should be put on hold pending the completion of the forensic audit, for which an Interim Management Committee was appointed for the NDDC. The Forensic audit report has been submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari over a year ago, on September 2, 2021. However, the NDDC was still being run by a sole administrator, in breach of the NDDC Act, until he was sacked last week by President Buhari and replaced with an Acting Managing Director.

His Majesty, Monday Arthur Whiskey has, therefore, urged President Buhari to inaugurate the board and management of the Commission screened and confirmed by the Senate since 2019, in compliance with the law, noting that trying to do another set of nominations will not be fair to those who have waited for over three years and that constituting a new board will further delay developmental agenda of the region that has suffered so much in the past years.