NDDC Board: Pius Otubu is ater us, lawyers cry out

Five days after suing the Federal Government for denying Delta State its constitutional right to produce the chairman, board of directors of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the litigants are alleging threat to their lives.

The lawyers, Andrew Emwanta and Felix Amakata, who addressed journalists in Asaba, yesterday, said Dr. Pius Otubu, the chairman-designate, his agents and associates have launched several attacks on the first plaintiff, Emwanta, including a threat to terminate his life.

The duo said if the attacks and threat persists, and Otubu and his associates are not called to order by relevant authorities, they may institute a criminal case of crime against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC), at The Hague.

Emwanta said: “This threat includes declaring me an enemy of the Benin monarch, and by extension, an enemy of the Benin kingdom. In Benin’s customs and practice, this has grave security implications. Though Amakata has not been so threatened, but what I am going through may have a spillover effect on him.

“It is in the light of this, and knowing Otubu’s antecedents that we are making this passionate appeal, and sending this SOS to the international community, the Federal Government, and well-meaning Nigerians to come to our rescue. We do not take these open threats for granted, especially in the light of the security situation in the country…”