Reps Caucus Rejects Buhari’s Appointment Of Sole Administrator For NDDC

The minority caucus in the House of Representatives has rejected President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment of a sole administrator for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

BIGPENNGR.COM reports that President Buhari had on Saturday sacked Prof Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei as interim Managing Director of the NDDC and in his place approved the appointment of Mr. Effiong Okon Akwa, the Ag. Executive Director, Finance and Administration of the Commission as sole administrator of the agency.

Reacting to the development, the House of Representatives Caucus, described the appointment “as a disservice to the people of the Niger Delta region”.

The lawmakers, in a statement by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, on Sunday 13th December, 2020, described the appointment of a sole administrator for the NDDC “as a further pathway to deprive the people of the Niger Delta of the much desired infrastructural development in their area”.

The caucus stressed that “the recourse to a sole administrator instead of the governing board, is ill-advised as it will promote corruption, alienate the people, trigger disagreements and worsen the managerial sleaze that is crippling the commission and impeding the development of the area.

According to the lawmakers, “the earlier resort to an Interim Management Committee and now a sole administrator, instead of a governing board, has heightened apprehensions in the region. This is not healthy, particularly given the strategic place the Niger Delta occupies in national economy and development.

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“Our caucus therefore urges President Buhari to douse the tension by immediately inaugurating a governing board for the NDDC as provided for in the establishment Act, so that the people of the Niger Delta region can start enjoying the much-needed infrastructural development through a properly constituted commission.”