NDDC Chairmanship Refuels Oshiomhole, Obaseki Conflict

By Emmanuel Aziken

The nomination of Dr. Pius Odubu as the next chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC is shaking the political conflict in Edo State that has pitched Governor Godwin Obaseki in conflict with his immediate predecessor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

Though the position of chairman of the NDDC was according to the law setting up the commission meant for Delta State upon the alphabetical order in the rotation of the position, the coincidence of the state also producing the position of Managing Director of the NDDC made it that stakeholders in the state had to choose the position of MD over that of chairman.

Sources disclosed that it meant that the office of chairman was passed on to Edo State putting Oshiomhole in position to push his erstwhile deputy, Dr. Odibu for the position.

GreenWhiteGreen gathered that the camp of Oshiomhole argued that supporters of the national chairman had become demoralized and needed an important office like the chairman of the NDDC to bolster support among their troops on the ground.

“The argument was that Oshiomhole needed the position of chairman of the NDDC to encourage his troops who were complaining that patronage had ceased from Obaseki,” one source privy to the development said.

Though Governor Obaseki has since his emergence reportedly not nominated any person for a federal position, the appointment of Odibu was said to have particularly rattled him as it further empowers his former godfather in the unravelling war between the two camps.

A source close to Governor Obaseki, however, dismissed the claim that the governor was dispirited over the appointment of Odubu, saying “We are all Oshiomhole’s boys.”

The source, however, affirmed that the kind of goodwill Oshiomhole is said to envisage from Odibu as chairman of NDDC is something that is no longer possible from the Edo State Government.

“The kind of things they used to do is no longer possible. The money that people used to collect for weekend is now being channeled for development,” the source said.

Oshiomhole’s supporters in the state, GreenWhiteGreen gathered are celebrating the appointment of one of their own as the next chairman of the lucrative intervention agency.

Remarkably, Odubu had fallen out Oshiomhole in their last days in office after the then governor chose Obaseki over all other contenders as his successor.

They, however, made up after the election just before the election that brought Obaseki to office in July 2016.

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