Two Niger Delta advocacy groups, the Ijaw Interest Advocates (IIA) alias, Izanzan Intellectual Camp; and the South-South Youth Initiative (SSYI); have restated their call on President Muhammadu Buhari to inaugurate the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) board to avoid unnecessary crisis in the Niger Delta.
Whereas the IIA, in a statement signed by its President, Amb. Arerebo Salaco Yerinmene, stated that “Akpabio’s mismanagement of NDDC and the region were creating unnecessary tension in the oil rich Niger Delta,” the SSYI besieged the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja, protesting against the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, accusing him of delaying the inauguration of the NDDC Board.
The SSYI group stated that Akpabio’s “major priority is how he can fraudulently continue to maintain himself as the sole authority to all the accounts of NDDC which to us is highly unacceptable”
The IIA group lamented that since Akpabio took over the affairs of the Commission, it has witnessed endless protests from the people of the region, wondering if the Niger Delta Ministry was the only ministry in the Federal Republic of Nigeria under this government.
Yerinmene reiterated the group’s call on the Federal Government to “call Akpabio to order to stop using the name of President Buhari to cover up his lies and atrocities as regards the mismanagement of funds and delay in inauguration of the NDDC substantive board.”
According to Izanzan Intellectual Camp, Akpabio’s “antics will not bring an eventual peace to the region, won’t stop the people from agitating, nor will it overturn the genuine demand by the people for the right thing to be done by inaugurating the NDDC board for even representation by all constituent states for functionality.”
The IIA, therefore, urged Buhari to “uphold the rule of law and the Act establishing the NDDC, do the right thing by inaugurating the substantive board to bring back normalcy to the region.”
Yerinmene regretted that since Akpabio became supervisory minister of NDDC and imposed interim managements/sole administrator contraptions in breach of the NDDC Act, the commission has not been “working optimally as staff too can effortlessly count number of days they are allowed into the offices because of endless protests by various groups in the region.”
The group also accused Akpabio of employing over 1,000 persons from Akwa Ibom, his home state without recourse to other states that make up the region and the Federal Character Principle.
The South-South Youths Initiative (SSYI) led by Comrade Imeabe Saviour Oscar, accused the minister of Niger Delta Affairs of misleading Buhari by causing the delay in inaugurating NDDC Board, and thereby shortchanging the people of Niger Delta region.
According to SSYI, “the sole administrator is not known to the Act that established NDDC, yet the interim managements and sole administrator contraptions have been in office for over two years now illegally backed by Akpabio, arbitrarily deploying the huge funds that come into the commission’s accounts on a monthly basis without accountability.”
The group, therefore, urged Buhari to heed the call of Niger Delta stakeholders and inaugurate the board of the commission in compliance with the NDDC Act as he had earlier promised.
It would be recalled that Buhari had promised the nation on June 24, 2021, while receiving the Ijaw National Congress (INC) at the State House in Abuja that the NDDC Board would be inaugurated as soon as the forensic audit report is submitted and accepted.
The president said: ‘‘Based on the mismanagement that had previously bedevilled the NDDC, a forensic audit was set up and the result is expected by the end of July, 2021. I want to assure you that as soon as the forensic audit report is submitted and accepted, the NDDC Board will be inaugurated.”
However, the forensic audit report has been submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari since September 2, 2021, prompting the Ijaw National Congress (INC) to caution that “any further delay in the inauguration of the NDDC Board is a clear betrayal of trust and display of state insensitivity on Ijaw nation and Niger Delta region.”