A coalition of no fewer than 16 Niger Delta groups have written a protest letter to President Muhammadu Buhari over the Interim Management Committee (IMC’s) continued to stay in office at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

In a statement in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, they insisted on the dissolution of the interim board as its continued stays in office was deepening the level of mistrust among Niger Delta states.

The statement jointly signed by its conveners, Pureh Kalango (National Coordinator, Person Not Party), Secretary, Abiye Achepaka (President, Ijaw Professionals and Entrepreneurs Association IPYED) and Saint Mienpamo Onitsha (State Chairman, PANDLEAF, Bayelsa State), noted that the NDDC Act 2000, as amended, did not make provision for an interim management committee.

“As a coalition, we believe that the continuous stay of the interim management committee will deepen the level of animosity among member states because some states have been marginalised and deprived of their legitimate right to occupy certain positions based on the zoning formula in the NDDC Act.”

On his part, Pureh Kalango, restated the fact that Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, was aware of the crisis the IMC was causing in the NDDC and among the Niger Delta people.

“We are also aware that the much publicised forensic audit will only be successful when an independent body carries out the task and not a committee made up of politicians with personal and political interests,” he said.

On its five-point resolution in the letter to the President, Kalango told journalists that the coalition pointed out that a team would be constituted to meet the National Assembly leadership and engage in massive sensitisation in the media on the need to stop the illegal committee in the NDDC.

We have also called on major stakeholders to intervene in the crisis in the NDDC and we are ready to organise peaceful protests in the Niger Delta states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to appeal to the President to end the injustice in the NDDC,” he added. (The Guardian)

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