NDDC: Stop Hijacking FG’s Appointments, Bayelsa Monarchs, Group Tell Sylva

A group of traditional rulers of oil producing communities in Ekeremor local government of Bayelsa state, have accused the Minister of State, Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, of hijacking federal appointments meant for the state and sharing such slots to his family members.

In a protest letter made available to newsmen in Yenagoa, the state capital, the monarchs allegedly accused Sylva of been behind the lopsided appointments into federal agencies, parastatals, board and ministries in the state.

BIGPENNGR reports that the traditional ruler hinted that almost all federal appointments were given to Sylva’s kinsmen, while he still hold sway as Minister.

The traditional rulers spoke on backdrop of purported moves by Sylva to change “their son from Ekeremor, Denyanbofa Dimaro, who is being projected for the position of Managing Director of NDDC”.

They said that though Ekeremor has more oil wells than Nembe, the Minister had overlooked them for his own kith and kin form Nembe , urging him  to support Dimaro for the seek of equity, fairness, justice to balance the anomalies created by him.

They said Dimaro, who is a staunch All Progressive Congress (APC) chieftain have been tested and trusted and his emergence as MD of NDDC will open the doors for more people to join the party and secured victory for the party in the next coming elections.

The protest letter was signed by HRH Perekebina Alfred, the Paramount Ruler of Koromotoru kingdom, Chief Alexander Daunemighan, paramount ruler of Peretorugbene federated communities and seven other traditional rulers.

They said Sylva, having taking up the Minister for Petroleum, controls the Nigerian Content Monitoring and Development Board (NCDMB), the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas with his kinsmen Simbi Wabote and Chief Edmund Daukoru, as Executive Secretary and Chairman respectively, it will be logical if he support their own son to balance the equation.

“From the aforesaid, it clearly shows that the Bayelsa West, comprising Ekeremor and Sagbama local government areas are unfairly treated. The Ekeremor LGA is a major oil and gas producing areas, besides it also proved substantial votes for the APC in the 2015 and 2019 general elections that gave APC victory at the polls.

The statement adds, “We are therefore pleading with Mr. President to consider giving the appointment of the substantive Managing Director of the NDDC to Smyrna form the within the above mention communities in the Ekeremor local government area of Bayelsa state, as particularly as already be announced in the media

“In our opinion, the polity and the region is already over heated and anything that will bring about further agitations should be avoided.”

In a related development, another civil right group, the Niger Delta Oil and Gas Producing Communities, (NDOGPC) also accused Timipre Sylva, for the seeming delay in constitution of the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC).

In a statement by the group’s National Coordinator, Chief Preye Olomu, they stated that Sylva’s interest of nominating an inexperienced young Maxwell Okoh, a candidate from his own Bayelsa East District which has enjoyed majority of the federal appointments already is causing disaffection and uproar from people of the Bayelsa West District who have been shortchanged by Sylva’s ethnic bias against them in spite of their commitments and contributions to the party.

Chief Olomu while commending the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio for his choice of an Ekeremor son from Peretorugbene, Senator Denyanbofa Dimaro to be the Managing Director for the forthcoming board, hinted that Sylva has single handedly without consultations nominated other federal appointees without ceding any to the Bayelsa West District.

The group mentioned names of recent federal appointees in the APC to be persons from the East District (where Sylva is from) and a few from the Central District with no appointee from the Bayelsa West District so as to maintain the equitable balance of federal appointments in the state.

“The group calls on Sylva to step down his nomination of Maxwell Okoh (who is still in his 30s – too young with no cognate inexperience in the sector) as MD of the NDDC and allow Akpabio’s nomination of a roundly qualified, matured and experienced Senator Dimaro (whose pedigree as an astute leader is not in doubt) to sail through as Akpabio had consulted with people of the district and the state at large before the choice of Senator Dimaro was unanimously accepted so as to do justice, equity and fair play to party faithful across the state.

The group warns that if Sylva fails to heed this warning by routing for his own stooge, then he should be further held responsible for the factionalisation and crisis that would erupt in the party due to his non consultative and authoritarian mode of running the party as a sole administrator to suit his whims and caprices”, the statement added.