NDDC: Buhari charged to disband EIMC

By Bolaji Ogundele, Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari has been charged to “disband” the Expanded Interim Management Committee (EIMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and constitute a substantive board.

In a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja, one-time governorship candidate on the platform of the Mega Progressive Peoples Party (MPPP), in Delta State, Alaowei Afro Buikeme, said a protest against the EIMC from Abuja to Port Harcourt in Rivers state will ensue soon.

Calling for the immediate dissolution of the EIMC, he wondered why the Federal Government was still keeping the committed even though it allegedly squandered an additional N9 billion in August, apart from the controversial N81 billion.

“In furtherance of the Niger Delta struggle, I will mobilise thousands of our youths in major protest starting from Abuja down to Port Harcourt few days from the publication and I enjoin all well meaning Niger Deltans to follow this struggle to Niger Delta freedom,” Buikeme stated.

The former governorship hopeful also called on the National Assembly and the anti-corruption agencies to freeze the accounts of the interventionist agency and prosecute everyone involved in the continuous scandalous pillaging of the treasury.

Biukeme warned that decisive steps must be taken to urgently end the audacious looting under a government that professes to be fighting corruption.

“Mr. President should be reminded that the Niger Delta Development Commission is an interventionist agency established to ameliorate the sufferings in the region through development and empowerment of Niger Deltans.

“It has instead been turned to negatively impact, by the IMC. Therefore, enough is enough. We want a new substantive board from Mr. President that will lift us from poverty and degradation. This is the stand of Niger Deltans,” the statement added.