A possible change of administrative leadership and re-structure of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC is imminent if the information reaching our newsdesk is anything to go by. The Acting Director of the commission, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari might be thrown out of office.
From the day she took over the reign of leadership of the NDDC, Seminitari’s appointment as the Acting Director of the Commission was entangled in series of constructive criticism.
From what we reliably gathered she was offered the appointment on the ground of executing the hidden agenda of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi in the re-run election in Rivers State, especially that of the governorship which the Supreme Court of Nigeria as put to rest penultimate Wednesday.
Semenitari is planted in the NDDC as its Acting Director to vote out fund in order to sponsor the re-run election in the State. There was a clash between the Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Engr. Babachir Lawal and the Minister for Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi over Semenitari’s appointment. The Acting MD of the commission is stooge to ex-Governor Amaechi.
Before the current political dispensation under President Muhammadu Buhari, the NDDC has been under the supervision of the office of SGF, since the time of Late Alhaji Umara Musa Yar’Adua.
However, the NDDC was under the Ministry of Special Duties in the time of Olusegun Obasanjo.
Amaechi, because of the billions of dollars he spent illegally to fund the Buhari electioneering campaign, he is making all possible effort available at his disposal to control the NDDC. Sources informed this weekly that Semenitari was imposed on the management of the commission, without adequate knowledge and consent of the office of the Secretary of the Government of the Federation.
Though the NDDC is under the Supervision of the Presidency, but all its affairs are managed by the office of SGF since in the days of Late Yar’Adua.
Besides the controversial appointment, of recent her successor, Dr. Tam-George, let the cat out of the bag by revealing her misdeed and sharp practices while she was in charge of Rivers State Ministry of Information. A group which calls itself Rivers Frontier had petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC to investigate the evil things she had done while in office.
And from what we reliably gathered the EFCC might invite her for an interrogation in connection to the missing of billions of naira allocated to her office as a Commissioner.
Semenitari brief stay in the NDDC has not imparted positively on the Niger Delta region, recently the SGF regretted that NDDC has lost its focus of serving primarily as strategic development agency, but served more as a political organization, thereby denying the people of the area the real benefits for which it was set up.
Knowledgeable sources hinted this publication that, with Supreme Court verdict that re-affirmed the Governor Wike’s election, Semenitari’s appointment has been defeated and the presidency is set to do the right thing.
When she was appointed to head the commission a plethora of petitions flooded the office of the President, requesting that an Akwa Ibom indigene must replace Mr. Bassey Dan Abia.
Sometime ago, the International Institute of Humanitarian and Environmental Law in a statement said that Semenitari’s appointment contravenes the NDDC Act which stipulates that when an MD fails to finish his or her four year tenure, another person shall be appointed from his state to complete the term.
According to the Institute Section 5 (1) (a) & (b) of the 1999 constitution and sections 3, 4 and 5 (2) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (CAP No.86) LFN 2004 a preserved by Section 318 of the Constitution of Nigeria, the president has erred in law in failing to appoint an indigene of Akwa Ibom state as a successor to the sacked Managing Director, Mr. Dan Abia to complete the term of the state.
From the information made available to us, there is no hiding place for Semenitari, she will soon be push out of the office by the presidency. ###
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