Another interim NDDC admin without board spells doom, FG warned

Nigerians based in North Carolina in the United States have said the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a substantive board for Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is provoking rising discontent in the six states of the region.

They warned that any attempt to appoint another interim administrator would truncate the fragile peace in the region.The group, under the aegis of the Niger Delta Patriotic Alliance (NDPA), North America chapter, Washington DC, USA, in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, warned that despite the existing peace in the region, the for seven years refusal to set up a substantive board for the NDDC and attempt to appoint another interim administrator might provoke a violent reaction from the people of the region.

The letter, signed by its Secretary General, Mr. Kenneth Friday, warned against alleged plot to sack the Interim Administrator of the commission, Mr. Effiong Akwa, and replace him with another.

The group claimed that facts available to it showed that sacking of Akwa for another interim administrator would provoke a new form of agitation and restiveness among youths and stakeholders across the region.

​The statement, made available to newsmen in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, reads: “What the region needs, according to studies and research, is appointment of a substantive board for NDDC.

“They don’t want you to sack the incumbent Interim Administrator for another. If the administrator is to be sacked, he must be replaced with a substantive board for the commission.”

According to them, the appointment of a substantive NDDC Board will provide a wider and legal representation across the Niger Delta region that will expedite economic growth and development.

“Instead of acceding to the provocative plan of anti-APC politicians for the sack of Akwa and replacement with another interim administrator, it is better for Mr. President to salvage the falling rating of his administration and that of his party by appointing a substantive board to complete the announced sanitisation of the commission.”