BY EBI NIEKETIEN
GRIDLOCK paralyzed the popular East-West Road in Ughelli, yesterday as the Niger Delta People’s Assembly (NDPA) staged a protest against what they described as the systematic marginalization of Delta State in the appointment of the Managing Director (MD) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Addressing journalists, NDPA’s Coordinator, Comrade Charles Ejor voiced the group’s frustration in a statement addressed to President Bola Tinubu.
He lamented that despite Delta State’s significant contributions to Nigeria’s oil sector and economy, it has been sidelined in the selection process for the next NDDC MD.
The statement reads: ‘’ Please be informed, your Excellency, that Delta State, a major oil-producing state in Nigeria is a major stakeholder in Nigeria’s oil sector, contributing to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and addressing Nigeria’s energy needs.
‘’Again, we respectfully draw your attention to Section 12, Subsection 1(d) of the NDDC Act which provides thus; 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 order of production.
‘’Therefore, with the expiration of the tenure of the current Managing Director, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku who hails from Bayelsa State, it is expedient to appoint a Delta State indigene to the office of the Managing Director of NNDC considering the contributions Delta State has made so far to national growth and development.
‘’In the spirit of equity and fair play and the Renewed Hope Agenda of your administration, we humbly pray Your Excellency to use your good offices to wade into this matter and reverse the systemic marginalization Delta State has painfully endured. Thanks, in anticipation of your swift and patriotic response.’’
Similarly, NDPA’s co-coordinator, Comrade Samuel Obada, expressed bitterness over what he described as an unfair pattern of appointments, urging President Tinubu to correct the imbalance by ensuring a Delta indigene assumes the role of the next NDDC Managing Director.
