From Joseph Obukata, Warri
The Save Ijaw Nation (SIN) group, yesterday, expressed opposition to the Niger Delta Development Commission’s (NDDC) board’s appointment of Madam Lauretta Onochie from Anioma in the Delta North Senatorial District as its substantive chairman.
They urged President Muhammadu Buhari to revoke her nomination immediately for the sake of justice and fairness.
In a letter of protest, the group expressed its outrage and disappointment over Onochie’s appointment, saying that it was against the law for someone from an area without oil production to serve as the NDDC’s chairman.
“The NDDC is a commission whose operations, board appointments, and funding are guided by an act, but we have watched with shock and bewilderment how the President Muhammadu administration has mismanaged the board with illegalities over the years in utter defiance of the act guiding the NDDC,” the letter, signed by Yangaboy Erekedoumene Jonathan, the group’s national coordinator, reads.
“We wish to remind the Gen. Muhammadu led federal government that in Delta State, the only tribe that is due for NDDC chairman appointment is the Ijaw tribe, who are the largest oil producers, and that all other tribes have been appointed to the board except the Ijaws in the last seven years.
“For emphasis, President Muhammadu should be reminded that the last appointment to the board from Delta State was Chief Cairo Ojugboh from Delta North Senatorial zone therefore, the appointment of the chairman cannot go back to the same zone to the detriment and neglect of the rights of the Ijaw people in Delta State according to the NDDC Act.
“As a group dedicated towards championing justice and fairness particularly when the Ijaw people’s fundamental right to economic and political survival is denied or threatened, we received the appointment of Madam Lauretta Onochie as the NDDC Board Chairman as an insult to the whole Ijaw race in Delta State and a bridge of the NDDC act, hence we call on the federal government to immediately withdraw the erroneous and undeserving appointment and appoint a Delta Ijaw man which is proper, fair, justifiable and legal.
“We believe, justice must prevail at all costs,” the statement added.