Finally, after three years of illegality, President Muhammadu Buhari has sent to the Senate for confirmation, the names of people who are to form the governing board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Umana, disclosed this development on Thursday during a working visit to Port Harcourt, Rivers State, according to a report by The Nation newspaper.
TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) recalls that since 2019 that former minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio turned NDDC into his personal estate, the NDDC has operated without a board contrary to the laws setting it up. An earlier list sent by President Buhari was disregarded.
While the Senate was busy screening nominees, Akpabio constituted an interim management committee headed by Joi Nunieh, who was also in the list of Buhari’s nominees.
The NDDC headquarters is in Port Harcourt.
“I am happy to state that some of the serious pending issues, like the absence of the NDDC Board, have also been addressed. And as we speak, Mr. President has transmitted the names of members of the Board to the Senate,” The Nation quoted Mr Umana as saying, when he visited the Ahoada axis of the East-West Road, which has been washed off by flood.
Mr Umana was accompanied by the acting Managing Director of NDDC, Emmanuel Audu-Ohwavborua, other officials of the NDDC and the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.
The minister said the Senate, on its resumption, would act on the president’s nomination for the NDDC board.
“Some of the impending matters that impeded the performance of the commission have been dealt with. I have presidential approval for the transmission of the 2021/2022 budget of the Commission.
“I also have presidential approval that recovered funds be released. The President directed that those funds should be used to fund core infrastructural projects in the region,” he added.
