SouthSouth Elders Progressive Forum (SSEPF) yesterday urged the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), to stick to the rational criteria in the appointment of the next Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Managing Director.

The SSEPF, whose membership comprises elders from across Niger Delta states, warned that failure to do so would plunge the region into a crisis, which it would hold the minister responsible for.

The group, in a statement, said if rotation is followed, it would be Bayelsa State’s turn to produce the NDDC MD.

The statement was jointly signed by the group’s Chairman, Dr. Promise Okpolo and Coordinator, Community Relations, Chief Anderson Etiewo.

It expressed fear that the minister’s advice to President Muhammadu Buhari on the constitution of a substantive NDDC board was against rotation, adding that such advice would mislead the President.

It said its concern stemmed from what it believed to be the AGF’s office’s alleged “misinterpretation” of Section 12 (1) of the NDDC Act 2000 as it relates to the appointment of the Agency’s managing director.

Section 12 (1) of the Act stipulates that: “There shall be for the Commission, a Managing Director, and two executive directors who shall be indigenes of oil producing areas starting with the member states of the Commission with the highest production quantum of oil and shall rotate amongst member states in the order of production”.

The SSEPF noted that Section 12 (1) had been duly adhered to in appointments to the Commission’s Board by previous administrations.

But that while “it was indisputably the turn of a nominee from Bayelsa State to occupy the position of managing director in a statutorily composed Board” the AGF appeared to be in favour of an Edo State nominee to occupy the position.

The SSEPF said it was “shocked by reports at its disposal” on the AGF’s alleged push to “interpret the law in the breach against the rightful place of Bayelsa, a major oil producing State to take its turn for the position of managing director.

“More so, when the only indigene of the state, Chief Timi Alaibe, who at the time was the Executive Director, Finance & Administration, EDFA, only held the MD position for a period of two years from 2007 to 2009, to complete the tenure of the second substantive board statutorily inaugurated for the Commission when the managing director, Mr. Emmanuel Agwariavwodo, who hails from Delta, resigned to contest the governorship election in his state.”

It stressed that in line with the provisions of the NDDC Act on the composition of a board for a tenure of four years in the first instance, no Bayelsa indigene had been appointed afresh into a substantive board since the Commission’s inception.

Citing previous managerial precedents by past administrations for appointments into the NDDC Board, the Southsouth leaders argued that even states such as Delta, Rivers and Akwa Ibom which have had their indigenes appointed as managing directors on a substantive board, had replacements from the same state if an MD exited office before the completion of his four-year tenure.

“Bayelsa State, which is also in the league of the four major oil producing states in the region has never had an indigene appointed as a substantive managing director in a new board nor was anyone appointed to complete a full tenure after the two years Alaibe was upgraded to fill in the gap after Agwariavwodo’s exit,” the group added.

It appealed to President Buhari to intervene. (The Nation)

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