The former governor of Akwa Ibom State and now Minister of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Godswill Akpabio, has been warned to stop impeding the smooth takeover of the Commission by the Pius Odubu-led new management board wondering.Niger Delta stakeholders issuing the words of caution also said they aware that some power brokers are planning to put other Niger Delta intervention agency under the control of the former governor.
Speaking on this in
Port Harcout, the Rivers State capital over the weekend after a meeting of
selected ex-militant leaders across the South -South geo-political zone, the
leader of the National Coalition of Niger Delta Ex-Agitators, NCNDE-A,
Eshanekpe Israel, a.k.a Akpodoro told newsmen that Akpabio was biting much more
than he can chew by arrogating to himself an unknown power of legislation above
the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria in his “rascality over
who manages a regional entity as big as the NDDC.”
They also stated that they are aware
of the subterranean moves by some power brokers in cahoot with Akpabio to annex the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP,
in a bid to make the former Akwa Ibom state governor the ultimate source for
dispensing favours ahead 2023 general elections.
The Coalition noted that Akpabio should stop holding the NDDC and the people of the Delta region to ransom.The group which described the minister’s attitude as reckless noted that never in the history of the intervention agency has there being an Interim Committee usurping the roles of a legitimate management board.
The Coalition wondered: how do
Nigerians read between the lines here when nobody is asking questions why
Akpabio’s grandstanding in the NDDC affairs is being unchallenged by the
authorities who are supposed to so do. The coalition thus called on the federal government to speak up and take
decisive action against the minister
over what the group described as
an affront to the collective intelligence of Nigerians and Niger Deltans in
particular.
The group said, Akpabio should not
be allowed to be a judge in his own case because he may be equally be complicit
in the imperfections that bedeviled the Commission over the years and so, his
hold on the Commission must be loosened by a clear action from the president.
Recall that the President on the eve of his trip to Saudi Arabia, had sent the names of Pius Odubu, Bernard Okumagba, Prophet Jones Erue among others to the Senate for confirmation as Chairman, Managing Director, Delta State Representative respectively. The confirmation screening was carried out by the red chamber promptly with an order to the new board from the Senate President, Ahmed Lawal, to take over the management of the Commission.
