Re-composition of NDDC Board: Thanks for heeding our call, NAIG hails Buhari

The National Association of Itsekiri Graduates, NAIG, has thanked President Muhammadu Buhari, for reportedly directing that the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, be recomposed and inaugurated after the forensic audit of the development agency.

Reports say President Buhari, in a proclamation released this morning, Thursday December 19, through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, also directed that the Interim Management Team of the NDDC shall be in place till the forensic is completed and that the supervision of the Commission shall remain under the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.

The apex Itsekiri graduates’ body in a statement signed by its President/Chief Executive Officer, Comrade Collins Edema, had on December 9, called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to immediately withdraw the current nominees of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC and reconstitute the board to follow the NDDC Act, by nominating an Itsekiri man as the new NDDC Chairman.  

A delighted Comrade Collins Edema, this morning, recalled NAIG’s previous statement: “The NDDC Act explicitly states that the Office of the Chairman shall rotate amongst member-states of the commission in alphabetical order. The Immediate past chairman of the board is Senator Victor Idoma-Egba, who hails from Cross River State, hence; Adherence to the provisions of the Act, means that Delta State was in line to produce the next chairman and not Edo State as nominated".

Comrade Collins Edema

NAIG emphasized on December 9: “The several petitions and court cases instituted against the nominees already screened by the National Assembly, attest to the illegality that gave rise to the composition of the controversial board. It is a well-documented fact that the Itsekiri Nation aside being the single ethnic Nationality in Nigeria with the highest Crude Oil & Gas production quantum, is the rightful tribe from Delta State to be so nominated to fill the position of the NDDC Chairman. It should also be noted that it is the Itsekiri Nation that contributes the largest quantum of Oil & Gas to Edo State. We wish to state that to neglect the Itsekiri in the NDDC Board nomination, is not only a rape of our commonwealth, but also a slight to the Itsekiri Nation, being one of the few tribes that are signatories to the Nigeria amalgamation treaty of 1914.”

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