Group under the aegis of the Oodua Nationalist Coalition, (ONAC) has impressed on President Muhammadu Buhari the need to consider appointing an indigene of Ondo State as the next Managing Director of the Niger-Delta Development Commission, (NDDC).
According to the group, the choice becomes inevitable in order to break the NDDC from its ugly past when armed groups had a strong stake in the commission through officials that placate them with the commission’s funds.
“It will be in extreme bad faith if the position of the NDDC does not go to Ondo State. The oil producing Ilaje community stood by President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress, (APC) during the last election. It will be quite unfair if the next NDDC Managing Director fails to come from oil producing communities in Ondo State,” ONAC said in a statement signed by its official, Mr Suleiman Sanusi.
“Our support for an Ondo State indigene does not include politicians from the State jostling to take over the position for personal political ends. We think the new NDDC MD should be someone that will use the commission to develop the entire Niger-Delta region and bring a halt to violence, kidnapping and destruction of oil pipelines.”
ONAC said in the past, the NDDC had been controlled by armed gangs and their surrogates who turned the commission into an avenue to siphon public funds diverted to supporting criminal cells used for electoral malpractices and other related violence.
The group said some of the militant armed groups in the Niger-Delta were on the payroll of the NDDC. “This was a well orchestrated plot by the PDP to keep itself in power in the Niger-Delta through intimidation of opponents, violence and threats at gun point.”
The group said the PDP politicians are working day and night to come back into national limelight by seizing top positions in the NDDC with the hope of using the NDDC as drainpipes for political ends.
