Group has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to disband the Interim Management Committee (IMC) and put in place a substantive board in line with the NDDC Act without further delay.

Disclosing this in a statement signed by Mr. Tombia Perekumo, National Coordinator, Niger Delta Transparency and Accountability watchdog, the group opined, “The decision of the Presidency to extend the tenure of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) shows the continued crass disregard for law and due process by the current administration.

“It is unbecoming that an administration that swore to uphold the rule of law and due process would continue to perpetuate an illegality.

“We had hoped that the President would seize the opportunity afforded by the termination of the six-month appointment of the IMC to reboot and follow the provisions of the law setting up the NDDC, especially as the appointment is the subject of no less than four actions in various divisions of the Federal High Court challenging its legality. To extend the tenure of IMC, therefore, is unconscionable, unlawful and disdainful of the law and due process.

“The announcement that, even in the face of the evidence of gross abuse of office the  IMC will stay in place for another eight months, represents a gross disdain, also, for the people of the Niger Delta who have made it plain that the IMC is an aberration that does not have the best interest of the people of the region. For proper understanding and appreciation of our position, the NDDC Act of 2000 (as amended) has no provision for interim management under whatever guise. It provides clearly for a Governing Board made up of persons nominated by the President in line with laid-down requirements and screened by the Senate. That the  IMC continues in office, despite the provisions of the NDDC Act, is a slap on the law and calls the National Assembly to its duty as representatives of the people.

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“Our position is not driven by calumny but by the facts, which are indisputable, and the only conclusion we can draw from the continued stay of the  IMC, is that either there is collusion at the dizzying heights of this administration or the administration itself has been held captive by forces with sinister motives.

“We are also worried that the presidency saw nothing wrong that the IMC laid off senior staff and directors it suspected to be behind the exposure of its fraudulent contracts. Some of these staff are said not to be only experienced but very dedicated. Yet, that is not a quality that appeals to the minister and the managers of the NDDC at this time, and certainly not to the presidency; they want lackeys who would raise no finger as the looting of the agency goes on. What is going on at the NDDC is a negation of the anti-corruption campaign of the Buhari administration and speaks to the true motive of the administration to treat us with disdain.

The administration has clearly allowed itself to be hoodwinked by an ambitious minister. Clear-headed thinking should tell anyone that there is great danger in running an agency on the basis of narrow selfish and primordial instincts.  It will, to restate the obvious, give room for further corruption in the NDDC. We cannot afford to have corrupt persons managing the resources of the NDDC when resources are in short supply, the Niger Delta people are pauperized and many communities do not feel the impact of the Commission.

These allegations are grievous indeed and any attempt to sweep them under the carpet will have grave implications for the anti-corruption campaign of President Buhari. Across the region, people are watching to see what the administration will do.

The president should not be promoting illegality at the NDDC as is clearly the case presently with the gross disregard for the law regulating the Commission.

The National Assembly should not sit by and bury its head in the sand when law and due process are being trampled upon as is the case now, it should do the needful by calling on the president to dissolve the IMC because its appointment and continued stay is illegal. We call on the president to disband the IMC and put in place a substantive board in line with the NDDC Act without further delay.

Vanguard