Women in the Niger Delta on Friday denounced promoters of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) interim management committee, describing them as the greatest friends of illegality and the most pronounced foes of the region.
‘’The interim management committee will breed hostility among the oil states in the country. The inauguration of substantive board is the best possible course under existing circumstances’’
They also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to dramatize the end of one man or a three-man rule in the commission.
At a gathering in Port Harcourt, the women appealed to leaders of key nations and world statesmen to implore Buhari to constitute the commission’s board.
‘’It would be a tragedy if Mr President let himself be diverted from consideration of the NDDC Board by the proposal of another interim management committee. Such a tendency shows a singular lack of understanding of the region’s problems and a failure to remember the larger purposes for which the NDDC was established. The composition of a substantive board is primary and fundamental’’
They also appealed to presidential candidates, traditional rulers and religious leaders to impress on President Muhammadu Buhari to constitute a board for the Commission.
The women described interim management committee agitators as predators, destroyers and zombies.
A statement read to newsmen by the President of Niger Delta Women in Politics (NDWIP), Chief Josephine Ekong said without the board, it would be practically impossible to assume a leading role in attempting to bring about a lasting peace and development in the oil rich region’’
‘’At inception, NDDC gave the Niger Delta people new confidence and a tremendous sense of regional solidarity. It taught the people the meaning of development’’.
The women said they would have nothing to do with the interim management committee or another sole administrator.
‘’The delay in constituting the board and the zero implementation of the recommendations of the NDDC Forensic Audit Report are enough to move the people of the region to anger.
They expressed complete satisfaction over the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr Umana Okon Umana’s good faith.
The women also praised the NDDC Sole Administrator, Mr Effiong Akwa for displaying leadership.
‘’The obligation of the government is to supply the focal point where problems could be integrated and resolved. The way out lies not in attempting to sack Akwa and putting in place interim management committee but in completely inaugurating the commission’s board’’
