Knocks Akpabio for alleged misleading statement over NDDC
By Chioma Onuegbu – Uyo
Akwa Ibom elder Statesman, Senator Anietie Okon has hailed the Six state Governors of the South-South on their position that the 2.5per cent appropriated to the Trust Fund for oil host Communities in the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, is inadequate.
Okon stressed that the demand for upward review of that provision in the bill to 10 per cent by the governors was a proper and justified demand.
He who also backed the governors’ position that President Muhammadu Buhari should in the absence of a substantive board for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), that funds beyond the payment of salaries should be put in an Escrow account, wondered why the President should take so long to constitute a board for the commission.
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He, however, described the reaction of former governor of Akwa Ibom, and Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio that South-South governors should desist from issuing a directive to the president on how to run the NDDC, as they have no powers to indulge in such an act as mischievous and misleading.
His words, “The Godswill Akpabio statement that the governors of the South-South were in no position to issue directives to president Muhammadu Buhari on how to run the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is mischievous, misleading and disappointing.
“That utterance amongst others he made paints an indelible picture of a Minister whose actions and inactions portray a grim indication of an absence of concern for the well-being of the people.
“Minister of Niger Delta Affairs should desist from ill-conceived antics of misinterpreting the clear statements made in the interest of the people. The Governors did not issue any directives to the President.
“The only made demands for the betterment of their respective States and region regarding the effective and efficient management of the NDDC wherein the development and prosperity of the Niger Delta region has lost its course.
“Regrettably, we are in a country where unity, peace, and progress, unfortunately, hang in disequilibrium, where governments of the federation units are forced to pick up the baton of responsibilities neglected by an unhinged Federal government”
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