Ilaje group rejects Ogunmola’s nomination into NDDC board

A Group under the auspices Ilaje Parapo Forum, IPF, has rejected the nomination of Charles Ogunmola as the Executive Director of Project into the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.

The group said Ogunmola does not share any connection with Ilaje Local Government, the only oil producing local government area of Ondo State.

The group said it was, however, surprised with dismay and painful displeasure that he was nominated for Executive Director of Project of the NDDC Board.

In a Statement signed by the IPF President, Foluso Ajimuda and his Secretary, Tayo Enikanselu, the group said the good people of Ilaje and the gods of their fathers are against the nomination of Charles Ogunmola.

The group has, however, written a petition to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to disregard the nomination.

The petition against Ogunmola’s reads: “On Section 12 (1) of the NDDC Establishment Act, “There shall be for the Commission, a Managing Director, and two Executive Directors who shall be indigenes of oil producing areas starting with the member states of the Commission with the highest production quantum of oil and shall rotate amongst member states in the order of production.”

The group said it stands firmly on the constitution, while pleading with the Senate President to look into the issue as it stated that the Ilaje nation has always been pushed to the wall about issues around its oil resources.

The group, however, threatened to fight using every method within its reach, promising to make the region ungovernable as they swill stage a massive protest that will have an adverse effect on governance.

“We humbly reject the nomination of Mr. Charles Ogunmola as executive director of project and urge the senate to step down his ratification and also call on the president to appoint in his place an indigene of the oil producing area in Ilaje LGA of Ondo State.

“This will go a long way in ensuring the sustainability of the age long bond, cohesion, and understanding between the people and the government and ultimately guarantee full confidence in this government.

“We hope your intervention by not confirming Charles Ogunmola as Executive Director of Projects of NDDC Board will save us from the wickedness and injustice of the oppressors of Ilaje nation,” the group stated.

It would be recalled that a lawmaker representing Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal Constituency, Kolade Akinjo, had urged the Senate to oppose President Muhammadu Buhari’s nomination of Ogunmola.

According to him, Ogunmola’s nomination is in violation of the Act that created the commission because he is from the Owo Local Government Area and not any of the Ondo South communities that produce oil, particularly in Ilaje and Ese-Odo local council areas.

While rejecting the nomination, Akinjo stated in a protest letter to the Senate that it is in violation of the letters of Section 12(1) of the Niger Delta Development Commission Act, 2000, which provides that: “There shall be for the Commission, a Managing Director, and two Executive Directors who shall be indigenes of oil producing areas starting with the member states of the Commission with the highest production quantum of oil and shall rotate amongst member states in the order of production.”