Government may nominate Ndoma-Egba, Ekere as NDDC helmsmen

The Senate is set to receive a letter from President Muhammadu Buhari nominating former Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), as Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Also, the name of a former Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Nsima Ekere, is being put forth as Managing Director.

Ndoma-Egba lost his bid to return to the Senate last year, while Ekere was frustrated out as deputy to former Governor Godswill Akpabio.

They are to replace another former senator from Cross River State, Bassey Ewa Henshaw, and former Managing Director, Dan Abia, from Akwa Ibom State, who were sent home by Buhari in a manner that made it a matter of litigation at the National Industrial Court (NIC), with some members of the board pushing for re-instatement.

The court has not yet given its judgment amidst speculations yesterday in Abuja that the new appointments may stifle the legal option sought by the aggrieved board members.

A former commissioner in Rivers State and journalist, Mrs. Ibim Seminitari, has been acting as Managing Director until news of the nominations filtered out in Abuja yesterday.

It was not clear yesterday what role Seminitari would play on the new board.

Until yesterday, Ndoma-Egba, a ranking senator who did not return to the Senate because of an inexplicable political battle with his friend and former governor of his home state, Liyel Imoke, has been in private legal practice. He left the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as a fall-out of the political battle.

Yesterday, Ndoma-Egba could not be reached for official comments, and efforts to get government sources to clarify if the two fresh faces and other board members were coming in for a full term, or to complete the left-over of the term for Henshaw and Abia yielded no dividend.

Many declined to comment, insisting that they could only speak after the Senate President reads the letter from President Buhari on the floor to his colleagues “either tomorrow (today) or the next few days.”