BY AYO ESAN
POLITICAL activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Timi Frank, on Monday, gave the Federal Government a 14-day ultimatum to rescind its appointment of a Sole Administrator for the Niger Delta Development Commission or face legal consequences.
He said this just as he called for the arrest and prosecution of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, for allegedly violating his Oath of Office by working against the interest of the people of Niger Delta and the development of the region.
Frank, who insisted, in a statement in Abuja, that the appointment of the sole administrator was illegal, said the defence put up by Akpabio, “for appointing his cousin, Effiong Akwa,” as the new helmsman of the NDDC, was an insult to the people of the Niger Delta Region.
He warned the Federal Government to immediately nominate a substantive board for the NDDC as provided for in its establishment Act or face massive street protests in the Niger Delta region and lawsuit after the expiration of his ultimatum.
He described Akpabio’s claim that Sole Administrators had overseen the affairs of the intervention agency in the past as untenable, saying, “Illegality 20 years ago remains illegality today and tomorrow.”
The Bayelsa-born political activist insisted that there was no law stating that a statutory board of the NDDC could not be in place while Akpabio “is carrying out his phony forensic audit at the Commission.”
He called on the Governors of the Niger Delta states, Ijaw Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, traditional rulers and all federal lawmakers from the zone to speak up in order to rescue the NDDC and stop attempts to destroy it and by extension the hopes and aspirations of Niger Deltans – living and those yet unborn.
“I appeal to all leaders in the Niger Delta to break their silence on this criminal hijack of the NDDC by Akpabio and his collaborators in the Presidency as God will not forgive us if we allow the future of our children to be mortgaged by greedy ambition and illegal scheming at the Commission,” Frank said.
He also called on the National Assembly, especially the leaders of the opposition caucus – Minority Leader in the Senate, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Ndidi Elumelu – to ensure that the 2021 Budget of the NDDC was not approved or handed over to Effiong Akwa for onward delivery to his uncle, Akpabio.
He said that failure to act in the public’s interest on this issue would make the National Assembly an accomplice in the ongoing anti-Niger Delta arrangement to illegally divert the resources of the NDDC by one family.
He said, “Minority Leaders in both chambers must ensure that the budget of the NDDC is not passed except they have chosen to aid and abet a ploy to arrest the development of the region.
“They must use their positions as opposition leaders in the National Assembly to ensure that the people of the Niger Delta derive maximum benefit from the Commission in terms of concrete socio-economic enhancements.”
He said that the hijack of the NDDC by Akpabio spelt doom for the Agency and people of the region who had continued to languish in abject poverty occasioned by environmental degradation, following decades of oil exploration in the region.
He said, “The NDDC is not a family empire where Akpabio can appoint his cousin as Sole Administrator.
“It is disheartening that the primary objective of setting up the NDDC was abandoned immediately Akpabio took over as Minister and made sure that the agency was removed from the Presidency and placed under his ministerial portfolio.”
Frank also vowed to take legal action against the leadership of the National Assembly should they proceed to approve the 2021 budget of the Commission under the present illegal management being supervised by a Sole Administrator.
