From: Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
A group, Niger Delta Committee for Justice, Fairness and Equity (NDCJFE), has warned of crisis in the Niger Delta region if President Mohammed Buhari does not intervene and stop the tenure elongation of the current NDDC board members.
This is even as the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State is set to file a suit at the Federal High Court, in Port Harcourt, to stop the Presidency from forging ahead with the tenure elongation of the board.
NDCJFE in a statement by its coordinator, Mr. Temple Aigbogun, warned that unless President Buhari wades in, the issue could throw the Niger Delta region into unimaginable crisis that would adversely affect the economy of the country.
Aigbogun, who alleged that some powerful forces in the Presidency, working with some officials in the Ministry of Justice, have decided to elongate the tenure of the present board members, noted that “it is offensive and contrary to the extant/explicit provisions of the relevant sections of the NDDC Act”
The group maintained that the present board has preformed below par declared that giving legitimacy to the tenure elongation would destabilise the peaceful co-existence of ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta region.
Aigbogun while noting that anti-graft agency should be investigating the board for rubbishing the war on corruption of the President Buhari government said the refusal of the Federal Government to act would force Niger Delta activists in the region to take every legal step to resist the elongation.
“Sir, please this fraud should not be allowed to stay a day longer because of the consequences it would bequeath on the region.
The peaceful co-existence among tribes and ethnic nationalities would be shaken to its foundation and rather replaced by mistrust and mutual suspicion- an invitation to breakdown of law and order”
Meanwhile the APC in Bayelsa through Mr Frank Oputu said the decision to approach the Court of competent jurisdiction, despite the denial by the Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF), Boss Gida Mustapha, was based on the conviction that the Presidency and some agents of Government are moving to violate the NDDC Act on tenure of the Board.
“We have concluded plan to file a suit at the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt. We are not happy over the development.. We are asking the court for an order stopping such violation of the NDDC Act. We will secure an order of perpetually injunction stopping the Presidency from elongating the tenure of the NDDC Board” he said.