Obaseki lied, NDDC board was product of broad consensus ― Group

Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki

The Niger Delta Coalition for Unity and Progress has faulted news credited to Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State that the new board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was singlehandedly selected by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole without the knowledge of President Muhammadu Buhari.

It said the commission was approved by the Senate on November 5, 2019.

In a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Brakemi Akokari, a copy of which was made available to Tribune Online in Abuja, on Tuesday, the coalition said it is absolutely untrue as the facts of the matter are very clear in the public domain.

According to the group: “We are bothered at the politicisation of the appointment of board nominees into the NDDC and how it is been turned into a proxy war of Edo State politics against the very fact of the process that produced that board.

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“While we appreciate the problems Governor Obaseki has with Oshiomhole, who was his predecessor, we believe that the governor will be taking this too far by giving the impression that all the members of the board, which President Buhari has kept on hold to be recomposed and inaugurated in due course, have been injudiciously selected with an agenda to loot the NDDC for Oshiomhole’s personal benefit.

“If that was how Obaseki got Oshiomhole’s endorsement in his first term, then it tells a lot of the kind of person he is – one without integrity.”

However, to take that personal tarbrush and impugn the reputations of the credible and high-achieving members of that board who have nothing to do with Edo State politics and who were painstakingly headhunted to reposition the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is irresponsible and fraudulent.

It is important to note that the president did not discard the board approved by the senate but stated clearly in the statement made by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr Femi Adesina, that the board will be ‘recomposed and inaugurated’ after the forensic audit is completed.

“That should be clear to anyone that the president’s intention is not for a fresh nomination and screening of a new board, yet in his attempt to discredit Oshiomhole, Obaseki lied, in a haste to discredit the board and a process that Nigerians all over have hailed as transparent and credible. It is interesting also that he has gone further to impute motives not expressly stated by President Buhari’s media aide in announcing the president’s decision on the NDDC,” It stated.