Oshiomhole’s Man Did Not Usurp Our Position In NDDC- Delta APC Speaks

By Chuks Ekpeneru

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State has appealed for understanding over the appointment of the former deputy governor of Edo State, Dr. Pius Odubu as chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC in the place of someone from Delta State.

The appeal follows the unique situation where the offices of chairman and managing director for the first time fell to one state and the president decided to skip Delta State for the next state in alphabetical order.

Odubu who was nominated as chairman is a close ally of the national chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole under whom he served as deputy governor for eight years.

Stakeholders in Delta State are aghast that the position of chairman which should have fallen to Delta under the alphabetical rotation principle following Cross River was taken to Edo State to empower Oshiomhole in his political battles with Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State.

But appealing for peace, the Delta State chapter of the party in a statement articulated through its director of communication, Nick Ovuakporie, cautioned those behind the media outrage against heating up the polity.

The party said the appointment was the prerogative of the President and Commander in Chief which cannot be delegated or abrogated.

The party stressed that the appointment of Dr. Odubu as Chairman of the NDDC board was done in good faith and in tandem with extant practice.

The party reminded those behind the agitations of the application of the doctrine of necessity as no one envisaged a situation whereby a single State will produce both the Chairman and Managing Director of the Commission which may have prompted the wisdom of the President to move the appointment of the board Chairman, to the next State with letter “E”  (Edo State), so as to revert to Letter “D”(Delta State) at the completion of the term of office of the new board in order to reflect equity, fairness and balance.

The party clarified further, that this present scenario whereby the Chairman and Managing Director of the NDDC coincidentally falls within one State to produce, has never happened since the establishment of the Commission, hence this development calls for the application of the doctrine of necessity which the President employed in this instance. 

The party went on to say that Dr. Pius Odubu was qualified to lead and reposition the NDDC to effectively deliver in it’s core mandate as an interventionist agency, established to revamp the infrastructural deficit of the Niger Delta region.

The party calls for calm and appealed to those who have filed litigations against the appointment of the Commission’s Chairman to withdraw same and support the board for the good of Delta State and the overall development of the region, it added.

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