By Emma Amaize

NIGER-DELTA Development Initiative, NDDI, a socio-cultural organization threatened it would carry out massive protests across the nine states of the Niger Delta region in coalition with other pressure groups, if the Interim Management Committee, IMC, of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, was not fired.

The group in a statement by the president, Famous Daunemigha, warned: “If nothing is done, Niger Delta Development Initiative and other pressure groups will mobilize and carry out a massive protest across the nine states of Niger Delta, which may cause chaos.”

NDDI kicked a clique it claimed was running NDDC, as a one-man show and sole administrator, saying:  “We call on critical stakeholders and well-meaning individuals in the region to rise up against the two-man Interim Management Committee, IMC, set up by the Presidency to oversee the affairs of the Commission.”

Lauding the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to constitute an Interim Management Committee and his noninterference with the forensic audit exercise to sanitize the system, the group “wondered why the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and his cohorts would undermine critical stakeholders of the region by swindling funds meant for development.”

It said it would “leave no stone unturned to resist any attempt by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and his cohorts to undermine the people of Niger Delta,” adding: “President Buhari should review the appointment of Senator Godswill Akpabio as the Minister, the acting Executive Director, Dr Cairo Ojougboh and other of their cohorts, who run the affairs of the agency as a one-man show and reconstitute a new management team to deliver on his mandate.”

Vanguard