Ateke Supports Ultimatum For Substantive NDDC Board Unveiling

The Amanyanabo of  Okochiri kingdom Okirika Local Government Area of the state, King Michael Ateke Tom, says he supports the seven- day ultimatum given to the Federal Government by one of the foremost Ex-Militant leader in the Niger Delta region, High Chief Government Ekpemukpolo also known as Tompolo for the immediate reconstitution of a substantive board for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), remains sacrosanct.
King Ateke Tom, who is a former Leader of the  Niger Delta Vigilante Force opined that the federal government had taken a long time in the process of getting another board for the commission, saying that the ultimatum was apt. 
The Okochiri monarch made his position known in a statement signed by his Chief of Staff, Chief Tamunokonba Akaluogbo in Okochiri over the weekend, saying that the  decision to back the ultimatum was due to what he described as the “continued insincerity and open deceit adopted by the Niger Delta Affairs Minister, Senator Godswill Akpabio in handling the affairs of the NDDC and the region at large” .
King Ateke Tom called on President Muhammad Buhari to display his penchant for an open ear and heed to the clamour by the stakeholders in the region and  immediately constitute  a substantive board for NDDC despite the unending forensic audit ongoing in the commission 
The monarch said that the stakeholders in the region had resolved to sustain the existing peace in the region despite the rising insecurity in the South East and other regions, adding that  setting up of a substantive board was not too small to ask by a region disposed to keeping the peace and rejecting secessionist pressure.
His words: “It is clear that Akpabio is deceitful and he means no good to the Niger Delta region particularly the Ijaws given his attitude towards reconstituting the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC.) Time and time, the Minister has failed in his promises and he is using the forensic audit as a decoy for his selfish aims. 
“I urged him to do the needful before the region tilt towards upheaval of breakdown of law and order again because of his ineptitude and lack of genuine concern for the demands of people are capable of degenerating into violence which I don’t pray for”, he stated.

By: Akujobi Amadi