Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Ndokwa in Delta State has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to consider one of its sons or daughters for appointment into the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Stakeholders in Ndokwa land hinged their appeal on what they described as grave injustice for not being appointed into NDDC since inception in 2000, despite its huge oil and gas deposits which are being explored and exploited for the growth of the country.
Speaking under the umbrella of Concerned Ndokwa Patriots, the stakeholders said among the five oil and gas producing ethnic nationalities of Ndokwa, Isoko, Itsekiri, Ijaw and Urhobo in Delta State, it is apposite to state that since the reconstitution of the NDDC board on five different occasions, Urhobo, Ijaw, Isoko, and Itsekiri have been appointed except a native of Ndokwa.
Coordinator of the group, Victor Okwuepusu, who voiced this concern, said Ndokwa people have continued to suffer political neglect despite their contributions in terms of human, material and natural resources for the sustenance of the country
“Ndokwa land is the second most polluted geographical landscape in Niger Delta after Ogoniland in Rivers State,” he said.
Okwuepusu noted that the Ndokwa nation is strategic and contributes immensely to the economic prosperity of Nigeria, noting that oil was first discovered in commercial quantity in Ndokwa land in 1958 by the Italian giant, Agip Oil Company, in a community called Beneku.
“Apart from non-appointment into the NDDC board since its inception despite our oil producing status, in terms of other federal political appointments in Nigeria, it will surprise you to know that since independence on October 1, 1960, no Ndokwa indigene has ever been appointed as either a minster, ambassador, vice chancellor, rector of a federal polytechnic or head of any of the Federal Government agency, board or parastatal.
“We are calling on President Buhari to assuage this ill feeling that exist among our people by appointing an Ndokwa indigene as the chairman, managing director and state representative in the new NDDC board to be inaugurated soon, since it is the turn of Delta State to produce chairman and the managing director,” he said.
He said there were several oil and gas exploration and production companies operating in Ndokwa land without hindrance.