NDDC: Appointment of sole administrator alien- Sheriff Mulade

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A Niger Delta environment and peace advocate, Chief Sheriff Mulade, has said that the appointment of a sole administrator to run the affairs of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, was alien and a contravention of the enabling laws establishing the commission.

Mulade, who was reacting to a Federal Court Judgment in Yenagoa, Bayalsa State,  on the appointment of a sole administrator for the commission and for placing it under a Ministry, called for the constitution of a substantive board and hailed the decision of the court.

He noted that the Act establishing NDDC only recognizes an Interim Management Board or Committee, and not a sole administrator, expressing misgiving over alleged mismanagement of the commission’s funds.

Mulade also alleged that the office of the sole administrator, Mr. Effiong Akwa, was being used by some government officials as an ATM to siphon funds for personal use rather than investing it in the development of the region, in line with the primary aim of creating the NDDC.

He also alleged that despite the billions of naira allocated to NDDC over the years for development purposes, the region still lacks basic amenities such as good road networks, health centres, clean and drinkable water, electricity supply, schools, connecting bridges and other infrastructure.

Claiming that those funds were in the hands of a few individual politicians and their cronies who never meant well for the region, he said:  “I strongly believe in President Muhammadu Buhari as one of the most citizen-oriented, listening and law abiding President of Nigeria, which he displayed recently during the citizens’ yearning for electoral reforms.