‘Your Refusal To Properly Reconstitute NDDC Board Illegal And Sectional’

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Human Rights Activist, Femi Falana SAN has described the persistent refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to properly constitute the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as wanton illegality which contravenes the NDDC Act and a subsisting Federal High Court judgement.

In a statement made available to The Lawyer, Falana who is the Interim Chair of the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB) berated the President for continuing to run the Commission with interim administrators while he has since constituted the Board of the North-East Development Commission.

In a statement sighted by The Lawyer, Falana wrote:

“The Buhari administration has adduced some contradictory reasons to justify the illegal appointment of Interim Administrators to run the affairs of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in utter contravention of the provisions of the Niger-Delta Development Commission (Establishment etc) Act, 2000, No. 6, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria. Whereas the enabling law provides for the constitution of a Board made up of the representatives of the oil producing states in Nigeria the President has been appointing Interim Administrators to manage the NDDC. The action of the Buhari administration is illegal, discriminatory and sectional on the ground that while the Board of the NDDC is not reconstituted the members of the North-East Development Commission (NEDC) were appointed by President Buhari, confirmed by the Senate and inaugurated on May 8, 2019.”

According to Falana, despite the in completion of the forensic investigation into the past expenditures of the Commission which was previously adduced as the reason for failure to constitute the Board, the President had also refused to take any action on the report of the investigation which was handed to him over 10 months ago.

He said: “The initial reason for not reconstituting the Board of the NDDC was that the accounts of the agency had been subjected to forensic auditing due to allegations of corruption and gross mismanagement of public fund earmarked for the development of the oil producing communities in the Niger Delta region.”

The Lawyer continued that “Even though the report of the forensic audit was submitted to President Buhari over 10 months ago the Federal Government has not deemed it fit to issue a White Paper on it. As if that is not enough, the President has continued to appoint Interim Administrators to manage the NDDC without any legal justification. Such appointment or renewal of same constitutes a violent violation of the valid and subsisting order of the Bayelsa Judicial Division of the Federal High Court which has restrained President Buhari from further appointing Interim Administrators to manage the NDDC.”

Falana also hinted that with the plan to appoint another Interim Administrator or extend the illegal tenure of the incumbent a number of groups have threatened to embark on mass actions that may cause a breach of peace in the Niger Delta region.

“It is hoped that the Federal Government will urgently douse the growing tension in the area by reconstituting the Board of the NDDC without any further delay. We also call on the Federal Government to release the report of the forensic audit of the NDDC and White Paper on the recommendations of the Audit Firm. In particular, the contractors that have been indicted by the Audit Firm for abandoning projects in the oil producing communities should be summoned and directed to complete them while those who engaged in the criminal diversion of the fund budgeted for the development of the Niger Delta region should be prosecuted and made to refund the looted fund.”

He concluded by warning that if the Federal Government does not put an end to the impunity it is undoubtedly clear that the appointment of the Interim Administrators and the actions taken by them including the award of contracts are liable to be set aside by the Federal High Court, sooner or later. He said, “At the appropriate time, the NDDC will be made to pay general and aggravated damages for the wanton impunity of the Federal Government over the refusal to reconstitute the Board of the NDDC.”