Senate Rejects 3 Out of 19 Nominees for NDDC Job

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed the nomination of Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba as Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and Nsima Udo Ekere as Managing Director of the commission.

Other nominees who were approved were Adjogbe Samuel, Mene Derek, Frank George, Brambaifa Nelson and Sylvester Nsa.

The nomination of Ogaga Ifowodo, Uwuilekhue Saturday, Harry Dabibi, Benard Banfa, Yahaya Mohammed and Mustapha Dankadai was also confirmed.

Two other nominees, Mahmoud Isa-Dutse and Abdul-Kazeem Bayero from the Federal Ministry of Finance and Federal Ministry of Environment, respectively, were also accepted by the lawmakers.

However, the membership of the two civil servants on the board, according to the senate, will cease whenever they are transferred from their present ministries.

The chamber rejected the nomination of three members on grounds that their nomination contravened the NDDC Act of 2007.

The Act stipulates that only persons from oil producing communities could be appointed to such positions.

The rejected nominees are Olatokunbo Ajasin (Ondo), Donatus Eyinnah (Abia) and Igo Weli (Rivers).

A nominee, Senator Osita Izunaso (Imo) declined his nomination, explaining that he was not from oil-producing part of his state.

During the debate, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe pointed out that Section 2(1) (b) of the NDDC Act stipulated that nominees for the board of the commission must be from communities where oil was produced.

The lawmakers rejected argument by Majority Whip, Senator Sola Adeyeye, that a nominee should be cleared if he came from an oil-producing state and not necessarily the part or community in the state.

Chairman of the Committee on NDDC, Peter Nwaoboshi, informed the senate that the nomination of Ajisin was particularly rejected because there protest against it by people from the state.

He said that people from Ilaje area of the state stormed the venue of the nominees screening in 11 fully loaded commuter buses to protesting Ajasin’s nomination.