Delta monarch urges Buhari to inaugurate NDDC board

Paramount ruler of Idjere kingdom, Obukohwo Monday Whiskey Udurhie 1, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to inaugurate the already screened board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The monarch, who made the call at his palace in Idjere kingdom, Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State, also urged Buhari to compel the out gone Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio to lay bare how he spent the budgetary allocations of the board in the last three years.

“The pitiable state of the activities of the NDDC is so disheartening that only an urgent inauguration of the already screened/confirmed board of the NDDC that would, in a big measure, try to resuscitate and rekindle hope of the people whose regional resources were allegedly criminally plundered by the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.

“Having voluntarily resigned as Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, our beloved son, Akpabio, should come out clean to explain to fellow Niger Deltans the whereabouts of the three years running budgetary allocations of the NDDC which inside sources claimed were more than N700 billion.

“President Buhari must have seen now that those he entrusted with the developmental agenda of the oil and gas-bearing communities of Nigeria had their own nefarious intentions to swindle and cause more havoc and deny the people their collective dreams of development.

“I have the privilege of sitting with you, Mr. President one-on-one on the 14th December 2018 and for over three hours and I recalled with nostalgia how deeply concerned you spoke about the underdevelopment in the Niger Delta.

“It is instructive to note that three options are still available to the Federal Government, the first being the immediate inauguration of the screened and confirmed board of the NDDC under the chairmanship of Dr. Pius Egberavwe Odubu and MDship of Olorogun Bernard Okumagba.

“Secondly, immediate dissolution of the illegally constituted Sole Administrator that is alien to the NDDC Act 2000 and thirdly, every of the allocation to the NDDC from 2019 to 2022 except for those used for staff salaries and sundry expenses, every other monies of the over N700 billion be recovered.

“I have the privilege of sitting with you, Mr. President one-on-one on the 14th December 2018 and for over three hours and I recalled with nostalgia how deeply concerned you spoke about the underdevelopment in the Niger Delta.

“And I know you as a man of due diligence who will not condone what had just happened to the regional interventionist agency, the NDDC which resources were plundered by those you saddled with such responsibility.

“The inauguration of the already screened and confirmed board will rekindle hope and restore the Federal Government’s integrity before Nigerians and the international community,” monarch said.