A Frontline pressure group, the Niger Delta Puritans (NDP), says that Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Umana’s appointment of Engineer Emmanuel Audu- Owhavborua as the acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC), connotes a blatant violation of the NDDC Act 2020, and obvious affront to President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive.
In a release signed by the group’s coordinator Timipre Ebiuwe, “President Buhari, an avowed stickler for due process had consented to the disengagement of the Interim Administrator of the NDDC, and subsequently approved the appointment of the most senior director to oversee the affairs of the commission pending the appointment of a substantive Managing Director and members of the Gorvening Board in accordance with the Federal Government Circular dated 4th December 2017, with Ref.No.50/S./C.2/268”.
The statement further opined that, for unkown reasons at variance with President Buhari’s directive based on the extant circular, the minister, Okon Umana discarded the commission’s regulations and catapulted Engineer Audu- Owhavborua, the most junior of the three ranking directors, ahead of two superiors; Ms Racheal Oddiri, who was appointed substantive director in 2013 and presently, the most senior director having been with the commission since the days of OMPADEC. There is also Mr Serigha Glasgow, who joined the commission through a former MD, Timi Alaibe as a deputy director. Let it be established that Audu-Ohwavborua who is perceived to be “highly connected is being peddled to mislead Mr President to approve the appointment.
It queried the rationale for appointing another acting Managing Director ,when an interim administrator has just been disengaged.
“We, the Niger Delta Puritans have been impeccably informed that this endless one step forward, two steps backwards movement is being orchestrated to elongate Audu-Owhavborua’s tenure till June 2023 and if encouraged, it will portend grave danger to President Buhari’s unalloyed commitment to the development of the Niger-Delta region”.
