By Emma Ogbuehi
Apparently disgusted with the controversies surrounding the activities of the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of an interim administrator to oversee the affairs of the agency. The Interim Administrator, is Effiong Okon Akwa, the Ag. Executive Director, Finance and Administration of the Commission, who is to assume headship till completion of the forensic audit.
With the latest development, the interim Management Committee (IMC) headed by Prof Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei has been sacked. Other members of the disbanded Committee are Ibanga Bassey Etang, Acting Executive Director (Finance and Administration); Dr Cairo Ojougboh, Acting Executive Director (Projects); Mrs Caroline Nagbo (Member) and Cecilia Bukola Akintomide (Member.) The IMC was approved by the President and inaugurated by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, in February to inject new blood into the Commission for better service delivery. Its operations have however been riddled with controversies.
A statement by Special Adviser to the President, Femi Adesina, announced that the appointment of Akwa “became necessary as a result of plethora of litigation and a restraining order issued recently against the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC by a Federal High Court in Abuja.”
Akwa is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.