The Itsekiri Consultative Forum (ICF) has stated that they would drag the Federal Government to court over the nomination of the Board members of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
In an issued statement made available to newsmen in Warri, on Wednesday, and signed by the Forum’s Chairman, Prince Emma Okotie-Eboh, and Secretary, Comrade Amaechi Ogbonna, they maintained that constituting the Board in the heat of political parties campaigns for the 2023 general elections would turn the NDDC into a cash-cow for politicians and derail the Commission from carrying out its core mandate.
They noted that the Federal Government violated the Act’s provisions establishing the Commission by not adhering to the oil production quantum principle and nominating the wrong persons from non-oil producing areas to the critical positions of Chairman and Managing Director.
The Warri Consultative Forum further re-stated their call that the interim chairman, Engr. Emmanuel Ohwavborua, should be allowed to manage the affairs of the NDDC until after the 2023 general elections, to give it a sense of direction and to focus on its core mandate to the oil-bearing States and communities.
They specifically maintained that it is the turn of Delta State to produce the Chairman and Managing Director, as provided for in the Act setting up the Commission, noting that by oil production quantum, the Itsekiri ethnic nationality is the highest in Delta state, and therefore, should produce the Managing Director and not the other way round. “That is why, among other reasons, we shall drag the Federal Government to Court”, they explained.
While expressing dismay over the list of nominees for both positions by President Muhammadu Buhari, as presented to the Senate for confirmation, they admonished the Senators to be very wary of the nominees, saying it clearly violates the requirements required of any persons to be so nominated as Chairman or Managing director.
“How can a Lauretta Onochie, from a non-oil producing area of Delta State, be appointed Chairman of the NDDC board and someone from Bayelsa, whose turn has not come, be nominated as the Managing Director while the Itsekiri, whose turn is now, left unattended to?”
