APC chieftain seeks dissolution of NDDC board, asks Buhari to address ‘administrative fraud’

Yekini Nabena, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC),  has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to redress the “injustice and illegality” regarding the current board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

In an open letter to the president dated February 26, 2018, Nabena said the tenure of the board ended in December and its continued stay is like “allowing illegitimacy to run riot”.

He demanded the removal of the Nsima Ekere, managing director/chief executive, and Victor Ndoma-Egba, chairman of the commission’s board.

Nabena, who is from Bayelsa state, said judging by the terms of their appointment and the law establishing NDDC, the members of the board were to complete their respective state’s tenure.

“The tenure of Nsima Udo Ekere as managing director and chief executive of NDDC has since elapsed. This is according to his letter of appointment from the office of the secretary to the government of the federation, dated November 1, 2016, with Ref. No: SGF.55/S.2/C.3/IV/52, which was signed by the then SGF, Babachir David Lawal,” he wrote.

Nabena said Ndoma-Egba was appointed to serve out the tenure of Bassey Ea-Henshaw, a “fellow Cross River state indigene”, while Ekere was chosen to complete the tenure of Bassey Dan-Abia, a “fellow Akwa Ibom citizen”.

“Ewa-Henshaw and Dan-Abia were inaugurated in 2013 for a four-year term that ought to have ended last December,” he said.

The APC leader said Ndoma-Egba and Ekere’s continued stay in office is a loss to Bayelsa.

He accused the managing director and the chairman of allegedly applying manipulative schemes to try to change the rules to give themselves more time in office.

“The resort to sit-tight, crude propaganda and manipulation does not only display an arrogant contempt for the law guiding the Commission, but it also offends basic decency and public morality,” he said.

“In fact, it amounts to administrative fraud. Any further day the board exists is tantamount to allowing wilful iniquity and illegality to run riot. Moreover, the fact that they have been paying themselves all manner of allowances even after the expiration of their legal tenure is criminal.”

Nabena urged Buhari to “quickly redress the anomalous situation” by disbanding the NDDC board and reconstituting it “based on fairness in order to restore sanity to the commission’s leadership and save the image of his government and its campaign to bring about change”.