The South-south Emerging Leaders Forum, SELF, has alleged that some forces in the Senators and a serving Minister are working to frustrate the confirmation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s nominees for the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
In a statement on Monday in Abuja, the forum’s national coordinator, Benjamin Kwalowei, alleged that the delay is a plot “to arrange a 3-month extension for the current acting NDDC Managing Director, pass the budget and raise money through the commission to prosecute elections in Rivers and Delta states”.
According to the statement, the plan is to cause confusion in the region for their own selfish interests.
“We have watched with keen interest the evil plot to cause confusion at the NDDC by the leadership of the Senate by unnecessarily delaying the confirmation of the NDDC board nominees as forwarded by the president.
“It will interest the world to know that such delay is strange and cannot happen to a sister commission like the North East Development Commission (NEDC) in the region where Senate President Ahmed Lawan hails from.
“We, therefore ask Senate President Ahmed Lawan what the Niger Delta region has done wrong to deserve this kind of injustice whenever it has to do with the development of our region and its people?”
The forum, which comprises various professionals from the region, called on the presidency to keep tab on the development and not to allow “few selfish individuals to destroy the legacy of peace and tranquility President Muhammadu Buhari planned to leave behind in the Niger Delta”.
The statement also urged leaders and elders from the South-south region, irrespective of their political parties, to speak up against the delay by the Senate to confirm the nominees of the President into the NDDC board.
“We are also using this medium to alert all the anti-corruption agencies to keep tab on the NDDC accounts between now and after the general elections and do everything possible to prevent selfish few from using the money meant for the development of the Niger Delta to prosecute their elections.
“As for us, we are mobilising all other prominent groups, civil society organisations and all the youths of the region to resist the plot to further cause confusion in the NDDC and setback the development of the oil-producing region for their self-interest,” the statement added.
