A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Friday, threatened to drag President Muhammadu Buhari to court for allegedly abdicating his supervisory role of the Niger delta Development Commission (NDDC)

The group, in a statement on Friday, also advised Buhari against appointing another interim administrator for NDDC, insisting that the supervisory purview of NDDC should not be illegally transferred to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, arguing that such action violates the enabling Act that set up the Commission.

It served notice that unless Mr. President stops the running of the affairs of NDDC with interim administrators, forthwith the group will meet him in court.

By this notice, HURIWA hereby ask President Muhammadu Buhari to cease and desist from violating the NDDC ACT within 74 hours or we file an application at the Federal High Court to compel compliance once the statutory pre-litigation notice is observed,” HURIWA warned.

The group alleged that the negligence of NDDC was as a result of “the underhand suppression by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs,” warning that “this negligence and administrative bottlenecks must be dismantled.”

HURIWA also alleged that the alleged neglect was the reason why the Forensic Audit Report on NDDC and the White Paper on that Report were yet to be published.

National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, who endorsed the group’s statement, noted that the proposed appointment of another interim administrator was a nullity, stressing that there was need to arrest the illegality with immediate alacrity.

Onwubiko stated that all actions relating to NDDC made by “the Minister if Niger Delta Affairs is null and void because the law states clearly that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the direct supervisor of the Niger Delta Development Commission hence all letters authored by the Minister remain absolute and irredeemable illegality.”

The group maintained that the President was fundamentally the direct supervisor and no one else but the President or Presidency, alleging that the concept of interim “administratorship” has been a means to siphon money and a corruption funnel.

According to reports, stakeholders in the Niger Delta region raised the alarm over alleged plot by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Umana Okon Umana, to appoint another interim administrator to oversee the affairs of the NDDC.

The stakeholders, under the umbrella of the Centre for Fairness and Accountability (CEFA), claimed the Minister, in conjunction with enemies of the region, was spearheading the move to undermine the relative peaceful coexistence in the region.

Onwubiko, therefore, argued thus: “Section 7, subsection 3, of the NDDC Act is specifically unambiguous and certain that the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is to have direct supervision of NDDC.

“But since 2016, President Buhari abdicated that statutory duty and left it in the hands of Minister of Niger Delta Affairs which is unknown to the extant NDDC Act.”

He said that HURIWA was serving a strong notice to Mr. President to stop the statutory breach with immediate effect or be challenged legally.

“We want to ask President Muhammadu Buhari to adhere to that law or be sued within stipulated pre-litigation notice period to get the Federal High Court to grant us a mandamus to compel compliance. Already our team of legal practitioners are putting finishing touches to our litigation should the illegality be left unchecked.

“The abandonment of NDDC by President Muhammadu Buhari is the reason for the cacophony of corruption in NDDC and he may have done it because it is an institution that ought to benefit the Niger Delta oil producing zone so he is treating that key interventionist agency anyhow by allowing a minister unknown to the extant NDDC Act to handpick interim administrators when the law said supervision must be by the President.

“One is curious to ask why the North-East Development Commission that came up just two years back is not under the supervisory purview of any minister and so why is NDDC that is far older being treated like an abandoned project in clear breach of an extant law.

“The President must sit up to his responsibility and oversee the NDDC correctly and provide leadership as he ought to.”