Posted by Niger Delta Youth Council
Niger Delta Youth Council (NDYC) has warned that the Federal Government’s inability to Innuagurate a substantive board for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) could lead to the resumption of hostilities in the region.
Consequently, the council wants the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, responsible for any breakdown of law and order in the region.
NDYC in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Engr. Jator Abido explained that it was constrained to continue in the efforts to calm frail nerves over the arbitrary administration of the NDDC.
It would be recalled that some prominent Ex-Niger Militants led by Government Ekpemupolo, aliasTompolo, had issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to inaugurate the substantive Board of the Niger – Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
According to the statement, the ploy by Sen. Alpabio that the board could not be inaugurated because of forensic audit is laughable.
“If the intention of Akpabio is genuine, the right thing to do was to put a substantive board that brings all representatives from the nine states and other parts of the country.
“The insistent of some cabal led by Senator Godswill Akpabio to jettison the screened board of the NDDC for a sole administrator is totally unaccepted and anti-development to the people of the region. The people of the region are averse to a one-man show in a commission that is supposed to attend to the developmental needs of all the states in the region.
“The Act establishing the Commission provided among other things that it will be administered by a Board comprising of a Chairman, Managing Director, Executive Directors and Commissioners who will be drawn from the nine states that made up the region.
“However, this provision has been blatantly undermined by Senator Godswill Akpabio and his co-travellers in the Presidency. There is no provision for either Interim Management Committee or Sole Administration in the Act that establishes NDDC”, the statement added.