LAGOS DECEMBER 17TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Former Federal Commissioner for Information, Chief Edwin Clark, has given his tacit support to the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), noting that its inauguration was “a right step in the right direction.”
Addressing reporters at the weekend in his country home at Kiagbodo, Burutu Local Council of Delta State when the IMC led by the Acting Executive Director of Projects, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, paid him a condolence visit over the death of his younger brother, Maj.-Gen. Henry Clark (rtd) who passed on at 71, the elder statesman stated that the panel should
“overhaul the commission and clear the mess before a new board takes over in future.”
He went on: “The NDDC was constituted by law from the then OMPADEC when I was an executive. It is important that the needs of the people in the region are met. This region is an oil-producing one and a hub of the nation. I, therefore, urge the Interim Management Committee to do its job effectively and efficiently.
“On behalf of the Bekederimor family, we appreciate the gratitude given to us by the NDDC. Death is inevitable, no one can question the will of God because we will all go one day. How it will come, no one knows. So, we leave it to God. I thank you very much for coming.”
In his remarks, Ojougboh expressed the commission’s delight over the Niger Delta leader’s contributions to the establishment of the NDDC, noting that they were aware of his immense efforts to the growth of the area and the country as a whole.
He stated: “As a leader of the Niger Delta region, your contributions are remarkable and we are all aware of them. It is important that we give honour to whom honour is due. Therefore, we appreciate your contributions, and we, as the interim management committee, are bent on restructuring the commission.”
In the same vein, a group, the Niger Delta Forum for Equity and Justice yesterday took a swipe at those allegedly blackmailing Senator Godswill Akpabio, insisting that no amount of smear campaign could stop the ongoing forensic audit of the interventionist agency, just as it faulted the calls to disband the IMC.
Besides, the Isoko Change Advocates (ICA) commended President Muhammadu Buhari for putting on hold the inauguration of the new board screened and confirmed recently by the Senate, pointing out that the current management would be able to overhaul the organisation while the audit lasts.
In a communiqué issued by the National Coordinator of Equity Group, Kenneth Adagogo, the organisation claimed: “We have watched with utmost disgust the recent sponsored attacks on the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, by fake and fictitious groups.”
Also, ICA in a statement yesterday by its spokesman, Comrade Ernest Obi, warned “other faceless, mischievous and a cluster of political jobbers to desist from unnecessarily heating up the polity.”
Guardian