The Oron Youth Movement (OYOM), the leading sociocultural group of the Oron people of Akwa Ibom State, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the crisis rocking the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by disbanding the interim management committee and inaugurating the new board confirmed by the senate.
In a letter to the president dated November 28th 2019 and signed by Comrade Etifit Nkereuwem and Clifford Nkonginue, President and Secretary, respectively, the group said it is in support of the forensic audit ordered by President Buhari but asked that the board be inaugurated to supervise the process.
Praising the president for his anti-corruption stance, OYOM said it is opposed to the interim management committee (IMC) set up for the NDDC by the Niger Delta Affairs Minister Godswill Akpabio because its inauguration was ‘ill-motivated’.
According to the group, it is opposed to the 3-man interim management committee because it “is illegal, undemocratic and unacceptable by all well-meaning people in this country.”
Among its demands from the president are the “immediate inauguration of the substantive Niger Delta Development Commission Board duly screened and confirmed by the Senate” and that the new board should carry out the forensic audit ordered by the president. It also called on the President to “direct the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to also carry out other mega projects in the region. For instance, completion of East-West Road Section 5 (Oron-Calabar), Regional Masterplan, Coastal Roads, skills acquisition and youth development centres in the region.”
Copies of the letter were sent to the Senate President Dr Ahmed Lawan, Secretary to the Government of the Federation Boss Mustapha, Minister for Justice and Attorney General Abubakar Malami and the Director General of the State Security Service.
