Niger Delta

Benin-based group insists on NDDC’s MD slot for Edo

A Benin-based group, the Network for Grassroots Development (NGD), on Monday insisted that by the provisions of the Act establishing the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), it is the turn of Edo State to produce the next Managing Director of the Commission.

The group’s stance was a reaction to a statement credited to the Niger Delta Rescue Movement (NDRM), which recently claimed that Edo and Ondo states could not produce the next Managing Director of the NDDC.

In a statement endorsed by the Co-Administrator of NGD, Ukato Thomas, the group stated that Edo State and not any other state should produce the next Managing Director going by its establishing Act.

“The suggestion that such a warped submission is anchored on the provision of the NDDC Act makes their case more ludicrous. Of particular note and interest is Section 12(1) of the NDDC Act.

“Consequently, it is therefore erroneous to put forward in the public domain that the two states of Edo and Ondo are not qualified to produce the Managing Director of the NDDC,” the NGD statement reads.

The group alleged that the NDRM might have been sponsored by a neighbouring state, adding that “As Niger Deltans, we must learn to live together in an atmosphere of equity and fairness or we condemn ourselves to self-immolation and then turn around to blame outsiders for our woes.

“We also need to state clearly and unequivocally that Edo State is by every indices the state that is entitled to produce the next Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission at this point in time being the fifth state in terms of oil and gas production quota among the nine member states of the commission and in the country.

“This position is not borne out of the need to agitate for the sake of agitation but it is supported by established facts and statistics of the contributions of each state to the oil revenue of the country. For those who doubt this position they should do well to educate themselves with the recent statistics from the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and of course the Federal Ministry of Finance. Edo State is the next in line to produce who should be the Managing Director and not any other state at all.

“Like many well-meaning Nigerians and organisations, Network for Grassroots Development is appalled by the delay in inaugurating the Board of the NDDC and the continuous administration of the agency by an illegal administrative structure. We join in the call on the Federal Government to immediately inaugurate the Board of the NDDC in line with the provisions of the NDDC Act in such a manner that gives each component member of the commission a sense of belonging and ownership of the resources accruing to the Commission.

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