NDDC: Akpabio Hints On Inauguration Of Board In April

By Matthew Ogune, Abuja
Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, has disclosed that a substantive board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) may be inaugurated by April 2021 after the forensic audit of the commission.

Akpabio gave the hint yesterday in Abuja while receiving the interim report of the commission from the forensic auditors.

Insisting that the Federal Government did not appoint a Sole Administrator for the NDDC, the minister noted that the government only obeyed a court order, which he said, directed that the most senior officer in the agency should assume its management.

He said that the youths who protested recently at the ministry against the headship of the NDDC were misled, adding that they have returned to the ministry to beg for forgiveness.

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“I don’t think the Federal Government appointed a Sole Administrator for the NDDC willy-nilly. What it did was to obey a court order restraining the interim management committee (IMC).

“The court ordered that the headship of the commission be handed over to the most senior director pending the conclusion of the forensic audit.

“By April this year, when we are done with the forensic audit, we will inaugurate a board for the NDDC and the report of the forensic audit will be given to those agitating for it so that we can have a new management,” he said.

Akpabio explained that the ministry was working to ensure that the NDDC headquarters was ready for commissioning by January ending, adding that the passing of the National Assembly’s passage of the ministry’s budget had secured a workable plan for it and the NDDC.