The member representing Brass Constituency I in the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Israel Sunny-Goli, has protested the nomination of Professor Nelson Brambaifa as the state’s representative on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
In an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, dated September 1, 2016, Sunny-Goli, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said that Brambaifa’s selection was against the views of the party’s stakeholders. It also amounted to relegation of two of the three senatorial districts of the state, he said.
The lawmaker regretted that the choice of the APC stakeholders and members in the state for appointment into the NDDC board did not make the final list announced recently by the presidency. He said that the party in the state had sent a nominee to the president through the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri. Sunny-Goli accused the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, of being behind the replacement of the state APC’s nominee.
Sunny-Goli also insisted that since Lokpobiri, who represents the state in the Federal Executive Council, is from Ekeremor Local Government Area, and the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, General Paul Boroh (rtd.) is from Sagbama Local Government Area, all in Bayelsa West senatorial district, it would be unfair to give Brambaifa, who is from Sagbama Local Government Area, the NDDC board position.
He said that Brambaifa’s appointment had grave political implications, stressing that the president should reverse the appointment and “do the right thing,” since the nominees have not yet been confirmed by the Senate.
Sunny-Goli appealed for the fair treatment of all those who supported APC during the last general election, despite all the odds stacked against them in the Peoples Democratic Party-governed state, where the immediate past president and PDP member, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, also hails from.