Igbo elders slam Edwin Clark over demand for removal of Abia, Imo, Ondo from NDDC

Igbo elders, under the aegis of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, have condemned the recent call by elder statesman and leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, for the Federal Government to remove Abia, Imo, and Ondo States from the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC). Recall that Clark, yesterday demanded President Tinubu to amend the Act establishing the NDDC and remove non-Niger Delta oil-producing States from the intervention agency. The organisation, which made its reaction known via an issued statement signed by its Secretary-General, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, described Clarks proposal as…

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Niger-Delta: Clark demands the removal of Abia, Imo, and Ondo from NDDC

Ijaw leader, Edwin Clark, has urged President Tinubu to remove Abia, Imo and Ondo States from the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC). The elder statesman also urged President Tinubu to re-enact a new Bill for the Oil production States, which are: Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Edo and Akwa-Ibom. According to the chieftain, the States were included in the first place in the 2000 NDDC Act for convenience, though a political aberration. He, therefore, made demand for President Bola Tinubu to re-enact a new bill for the NDDC that would reflect the…

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NDDC Crisis: Onochie accuses MD of operating 367 illegal accounts

Another round of fresh corruption crisis has bedevilled the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as the Chairman of the Commissions Board of Directors, Lauretta Onochie and the Managing Director, Samuel Ogbuku, openly engaged one another in corruption allegations exchanges at the National Assembly. At an investigative hearing by the Senate Committee on Unauthorised Spending in the Commission, Ogbuku, who was represented by the Executive Director in charge of Finance and Administration, Charles Airhiavere, accused Onochie of over stepping her bounds by desperately seeking to be a signatory to NDDCs accounts.…

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NDDC Board Nomination: “We shall meet in court”, Itsekiri group tells FG

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…

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Buhari sacks NDDC Sole Administrator, orders constitution of new Board  

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the disengagement of the Interim Administrator of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Effiong Okon Akwa. In a memo signed by the Director of Press, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Patricia Deworitshe, Buhari ordered that the directive should take effect from today, 20 October 2022. Akwa was appointed interim administrator of the Commission for the duration of the Forensic Audit into the operations of the NDDC, which has now been concluded. According to Deworitshe, Buhari also approved the constitution of a new Management Team and…

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“NDDC thieves must cough out their loot” – Buhari vows

President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerians that every kobo stolen from the Niger-Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), will be recovered. The President, who spoke yesterday, during the virtual commissioning of the NDDC Prototype Hostel at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, said those found culpable will be jailed. He added that the concluded report of the forensic audit of the activities of the Commission was being reviewed for this purpose. The President, however, expressed regret that the special development fund of the entire region was squandered by a few. He…

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More Lassa Fever deaths recorded in Bauchi, Ebonyi

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NDDC) has announced that Bauchi and Ebonyi states recorded new deaths from Lassa fever as the nations toll from the disease since the beginning of 2021 rises to 92. The NCDC disclosed this in its latest situation report on the outbreak of the disease in the country. According to the data from the report for Week 50, which covered December 13 to 19, three more deaths were reported in the week under review. While Bauchi reported two new fatalities, Ebonyi recorded a new death…

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N6tr NDDC Funds: SERAP sues Buhari over failure to publish suspected looters’ names

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, (SERAP), has filed a lawsuit against President Muhammadu Buhari over his failure to publish the names of those indicted in the alleged misappropriation of over N6 trillion in the running of the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), between 2000 and 2019, as documented in the recent Forensic Audit Report on NDDC. In the suit, filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers Kolawole Oluwadare and Opeyemi Owolabi, at the Federal High Court, Abuja, SERAP is seeking an order of mandamus to direct and compel…

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NDDC Board composition: APC may lose oil states – Group warns FG

A group, Vanguard for Transparent Leadership and Accountability, (VATLAD), has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to save his ruling party, All Progressives Congress, (APC), from losing the nine oil states by allowing the substantive Governing Board of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, confirmed by the Senate on November 5, 2019, to resume work. The group, in an issued statement by the national president, Emmanuel Igbini, said President Buhari has been misdirected all this while, adding the Board does not necessarily have to be inaugurated before it commences work with the latest…

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“We gave Niger-Delta govs. N100m each as Covid-19 palliatives” – NDDC

The Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), has stated that it gave each of the governors of the nine oil-producing states N100 million each as Covid-19 palliatives.  This claim was reportedly made by NDDC officials while appearing before the Senate Committee on Ethics Privileges and Public Petitions.  The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Patrick Ayo Akinyelure told newsmen that the Senate may summon the governors to testify on how the money was spent. He warned that the NDDC Sole Administrator must appear before it or risk an arrest warrant being issued against him…

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