Project Niger Delta, (PND), a non-governmental organisation in the Niger Delta has rebuked the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio over the delayed inauguration of the substantive board of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
According to the group, the continued delay in inaugurating the board of the NDDC is “deliberately for selfish political gains against the collective demands of the Niger Delta people.”
PND in a statement by its executive director and national cordinator, Prince Timipre Ebebi, said the people of the region is were not happy with the procrastination of the inauguration of the board six months after the minister’s promise.
While calling for the immediate inauguration of the NDDC board, Ebebi recalled that the minister had promised that the board would be inaugurated by July 2021, regretting that the minister was taking the stakeholders and people of the region for granted.
He warned that if the board is not inaugurated soonest, the group will mobilise youths of the region against the minister and interim administrator and flayed the nonchalant attitude of youth groups in the region particularly the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC.
He called on the leadership of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, the Ijaw National Congress, INC, and other ethnic groups in the region to rise and speak out against the perceived injustice meted out to the people of the region through the failure in inaugurating a substantive board for the NDDC.
He said: “Since December 22, 2020, Mr.Effiong Akwa was appointed by Mr President through the lobbying of Senator Godswill Akpabio as Interim Administrator of NDDC and the duo hail from Akwa Ibom. Since then the collective prosperity and federal government developmental incentives to the region are being managed by one family and our resources are being used for personal gains despite our consistent appeal and peaceful resolution, the minister has turned a deaf ear.
“We at PND hereby call on Senator Akpabio not to take us for granted and expedite actions to inaugurate the board for the benefit of all, anything less than that, we shall mobilise Niger Delta youths against him and the Interim Administrator who are sabotaging the collective interest of the Niger Delta people.”
Project Niger Delta also queried the nonchalant attitude of the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, for its long silence and also called on the leadership of the Ijaw National Congress, INC, led by Professor Benjamin Okaba to continue to speak against the apparent leadership failure of Senator Godswill Akpabio in relation to the handling of the NDDC matters.
Continuing, the group stated that “in the same vein we are also calling on Pa E. K Clark led Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, to speak out against the further delay in the inauguration of the NDDC board, because as it stands NDDC belongs to only Akwa-Ibom State, while Cross River, Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, Edo, Ondo, Abia and Imo states are being denied their representation to fast track development in their states thereby defeating the purpose for the establishment of the commission.”