The tension that arose days back in some quarters, especially in the camp of Godswill Akpabio, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, when an Abuja High Court ordered the sack of Daniel Pondei and his Interim Management Committee (IMC) at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), seems to have dissipated.
This is coming as President Muhammadu Buhari, who said he sacked Pondei as acting managing director of NDDC following the outcome of the court ruling, has picked a man the Akpabio camp seems comfortable with as Pondei’s replacement.
Femi Adesina, the president’s spokesman, confirmed in a statement in Abuja on Saturday that Buhari has approved the appointment of Effiong Okon Akwa as interim administrator to oversee the affairs of NDDC.
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The presidential aide stated that Akwa, who is the acting executive director, Finance and Administration of the Commission, would assume headship till completion of the forensic audit of the NDDC.
“The development 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,” he said.
The Pondei-led IMC and the ones before it were given the task of conducting a forensic audit to reposition the NDDC, but in-fighting and external influence, especially from the National Assembly and most of those said to have collected hundreds of contracts with payments without doing them, have stalled the speed of the audit, until the presidency stamped its feet on the ground.
The IMC under Pondei was expected to conclude and leave office by December 2020 but probes at the NASS and other silent investigations from the EFCC and DSS seemed to have delayed the speed. Now, an administrator is to hold office, probably to only oversee the audit before a substantive board would come in to begin actual development of the Niger Delta region.
