South-south group: Delayed confirmation of NDDC board nominees is plot to cause confusion

A group known as The South-South Emerging Leaders Forum (SELF) has expressed concern over the “delay” in the confirmation of nominees for the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

President Muhammadu Buhari had recently appointed a new board and asked the senate to confirm it.

Lauretta Onochie, presidential aide, in November, was appointed as the chairperson of the board by the president — a development that has elicited varied reactions.

In a statement on Monday, Benjamin Kwalowei, the forum’s national coordinator, said the delay in the confirmation of the board is “unnecessary”.

“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,” Kwalowei said.

“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 the Senate President Ahmad Lawan hails from.

“We, therefore, ask Senate President Ahmad 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?

“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 election and do everything possible to prevent selfish few from using the money meant for 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 set back the development of the oil-producing region for their self interest.”