IYC Wants NASS To Sanction Akpabio, Urges Buhari To Inaugurate NDDC Board

Foremost Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide has called on the National Assembly to sanction the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio for insisting on the continuous stay in office of the ‘illegal’ interim management committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) despite the resolutions of the National Assembly.

IYC said that Akpabio’s action is an affront on the powers of the National Assembly and the clear provisions of the NDDC Establishment Act.

The group said that the minister should be sanction to act as deterrent to others and put a stop to the ongoing act of illegality in the NDDC.

IYC’s President, Eric Omare, who stated this in a statement on Thursday, also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to inaugurate the substantive board of the NDDC having being screened and confirmed by the Senate.

He said that the NDDC board should be swear in without delay to enable it attend to the urgent developmental issues demanding for federal government urgent attention in the Niger Delta region.

“The Niger Delta region is massively suffering the absence of a substantive leadership of the NDDC and it would amount to great injustice to the region to further delay the inauguration of the board.”

Omare, however said hailed the House of Representatives for calling on Akpabio to dissolve the ‘illegal’ Interim Management Committee of NDDC.

IYC said that the House of Representatives has by this singular decision demonstrated that it exists to protect the rule of law for democracy to thrive in Nigeria.

It further commended the House of Representatives for reinforcing the position of the Senate that the interim management committee is “illegal, null and void in the light of the confirmation of the NDDC board members by the Senate”.

“In the opinion of the IYC, the National Assembly has saved the Niger Delta region from a state of chaos just as the National Assembly saved Nigerian democracy with the proclamation of the doctrine of necessity in the year 2010”.