Protesters have blocked the main entrance of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) over alleged plan by the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Okon Umana, to carry out staff audit in the commission.
The protesters who claimed family members of NDDC staff also kicked against the alleged deep involvement of Umana in the administrative affairs of the commission, which they claimed was contrary to his assigned role as a supervisory minister of the NDDC.
Some of the placards displayed by the protesters include “NDDC not a ground to settle political acrimonies”; “Mr President return NDDC to the office of SGF”; “Umana/perm Sec leave NDDC staff alone and “President Buhari sack Umana now”, among others.
Mr Victor Briggs who spoke on behalf of the protesters said it was wrong for the minister to call for an audit of staff of the commission, an exercise he claimed was carried out years ago before the commencement of the forensic audit in the commission.
Briggs claimed that Umana’s main intent was to sack some staff of the NDDC and bring in his cronies as a way of compensating them for political reasons.
He said, “We have discovered that his actual intention is to recruit those he will use for the 2023 politics and we will never allow that to happen.
“We are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgency stop the minister of the Niger Delta Affairs from destroying the Commission with the ulterior motive of sacking genuine staff of the Commission and replaced them with political cronies.
They are our bread winners. They pay our school fees. If they are sacked now, where do we go to?
“We will be here as long as possible until Mr President responds to our request. This is very unfair and we don’t want a situation where the region is plunged into an avoidable crisis. You can see that we are all young people who are dependent on their parents or relations in this Commission.”
Speaking to newsmen, an NDDC staff, who pleaded for anonymity, said the undue interference of Umana in the affairs of the NDDC had already gone beyond his supervisory role.
He said, “He is going too far about the issues affecting the NDDC despite the fact that the office of director general had since carried out an audit on the staff and contracts in the commission.
“About two years ago, we did biometrics and all the data for staff audit were submitted to the Head of service when this Commission was still at Aba Road. Umana has no right to order his own staff to carry out staff audit in NDDC because this is a Commission duly established by law.
“As a supervisory minister then, former minister Godswill Akpabio never tried that kind of a thing. What is happening in NDDC right now is a clear annexation of the Commission. It is equivalent to what Russia is doing to Ukraine.
“On that note, we are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently inaugurate a substantive board to run the affairs of the commission, going forward,” he said.
