The Ijaw National Congress (INC), Western Zone, has impressed on the Ijaw leaders the need to support Ondo State’s quest to produce the next Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The group, in a statement by its spokesman, Comrade Priye Noel Kuete insisted that it is the Western Zone’s turn to produce the next NDDC boss, noting that the Central and Eastern Zones had at various times produced high ranking officers who managed the affairs of the Commission.
Comrade Kuete who observed that the Western Zone which comprises of Delta, Edo and Ondo States respectively, reiterated that it is Ondo State’s turn to lead the affairs of the Commission because “It’s constitutional, it’s moral and it’s logical for the state to do so.”
Kuete added, “We expect all hands to be on deck and support Ondo State to produce the next managing director in line with the relevant provisions of the Act that set up the Commission,” he stressed.
While lamenting what he described as the injustice and age-long marginalisation so far meted on Ondo State since the establishment of the Commission through denying the fifth leading oil producing state of any executive position, he however, commended the state for waiting for the appropriate time to demand for their right.
The INC boss, who also expressed worry that some group of people are drumming up support for Bayelsa State, which had at one time produced the Managing Director and Executive Directors, maintained that such development was not only uncalled for but also against the principle of fairness and justice.
Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers States, he observed, “Have all produced Managing Director and other executive positions since the creation of the NDDC some 17 years ago.”