Reps Minority Caucus Tackles Buhari Again, This Time on NDDC

House of Representatives’ Minority Caucus that unsettled the House last week with a call for the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari, has rejected the appointment of a Sole Administrator for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by the president.

The caucus is describing it as disservice to the peoples of the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s vastly polluted oil and gas region.

A leading member of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the House, Kingsley Chinda, called for impeachment process to be commenced on President Buhari.

The call came as the House last Tuesday, through a resolution, invited President Buhari to come and explain to federal legislators why the security situation in the country is escalating.

The invitation was however, prompted by the recent killing of over 43 rice farmers in Zarbamari village in Borno State.

Chinda in a statement the previous Sunday, said President Buhari has failed in his primary responsibility to protect lives and property in the country, and called on Nigerians to compel their representatives at the National Assembly to commence impeachment processes against the president.

While Chinda also called on the Federal Executive Council to declare President Buhari incapacitated,
Spokesman of  the rattled House, Ben Kalu, described the call as illogical. Kalu also said it was a distraction to members who were eagerly awaiting Buhari’s coming to the House. The president never did.

In statement, Kalu claimed that Chinda does not speak for the lawmakers, describing him as loner.

In the mean time, the caucus is calling on President Buhari to, without further delay, inaugurate a governing board for the NDDC as required by the Act establishing the commission.

Minority Leader of the House, Ndudi Elumelu (PDP Delta), in a statement on Sunday, described the appointment of a sole administrator for the NDDC “as a further pathway to deprive the people of the Niger Delta of the much desired infrastructural development in their area”.

The caucus stressed that “the recourse to a sole administrator instead of the governing board, is ill-advised as it will promote corruption, alienate the people, trigger disagreements and worsen the managerial sleaze that is crippling the commission and impeding the development of the area.

According to them, “the earlier resort to an Interim Management Committee and now a sole administrator, instead of a governing board, has heightened apprehensions in the region. This is not healthy, particularly given the strategic place the Niger Delta occupies in national economy and development.

“Our caucus therefore urges President Buhari to douse the tension by immediately inaugurating a governing board for the NDDC as provided for in the establishment Act, so that the people of the Niger Delta region can start enjoying the much-needed infrastructural development through a properly constituted commission”.

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