Delta monarch seeks return of NDDC to presidency

Ovie of Idjerhe Kingdom in Ethiope West Council of Delta state, HRH Obukowho Monday Whiskey, has canvassed return of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to the Presidency to end the lingering crisis in the agency.

He argued that returning the NDDC to the Presidency like the North East Development Commission (NEDC) would help in addressing its control, which he said, had been hijacked by Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio.

“The avoidable crisis in the NDDC would have ended if President Muhammadu Buhari had listened to stakeholders by inaugurating the board the National Assembly screened and confirmed with Dr. Pius Odubu as Chairman and Bernard Okumagba as Managing Director,” he said.

He said the huge financial mismanagement and stealing of billions of naira in the name of Interim Management Committee (IMC) and recently a Sole Administrator, has clearly shown that the President should put an end to the dance of shame by removing NDDC from Akpabio’s control, as evidence had shown his failure and lack of capacity.

The monarch said the President Buhari should listen to the voice of reason and urgently reposition the NDDC to carry out its statutory responsibility of ensuring infrastructure development of the Niger Delta region for which it was was established.

“It should also be noted that mindless stealing in the NDDC will become a standard if nothing drastic is done to bring the looters and their conspirators to book. I, therefore, call for urgent probing and prosecution of all those responsible for the current sorry state of the commission.

“We cannot continue to pretend that all is well in the Niger Delta region when the NDDC has been hijacked by an individual to the detriment of our people. The President must act now or never,” he added.