By Chukwuemeka Chukwueke

Information reaching AFNEWS has it that the Ovie of Idjerhe Kingdom, Ethiope West Local Government Area, Delta State, HRM Obukowho Monday Whiskey, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to step in and halt the dance of shame and fraudulent activities ravaging the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, by returning the regional interventionist agency to the Presidency.

King Whiskey, in a statement, said: “Just like a similar body, the North-East Development Commission is under the Presidency,  I am advocating the urgent return of troubled NDDC back to the Presidency.

“This will address the controversial control of NDDC that has been, today, hijacked by a Minister “President Buhari, as the father of the nation, must now listen to the voice of reason and urgently reposition the NDDC to carry out its statutory responsibilities in intervening in critical infrastructure responsibility which the agency was established to address.

“This avoidable crisis would have been put to rest if the President had listened to critical stakeholders by inaugurating the already screened and confirmed board of the NDDC under the chairmanship of Dr. Pius Odubu and Chief Bernard Okumagba as Managing Director”, the Ovie maintained

The monarch further noted that the huge financial mismanagement and outright stealing of billions of naira by individuals in the name of Interim Management Committee and, recently, Sole Administrator have clearly shown that the President must put an end to this dance of shame by removing NDDC control from under a ministry, as all evidence has shown total failure and lack of capacity.

“It should be noted also that the huge stealing that is taking place at NDDC will become a standard if nothing drastic is done to bring the looters and their conspirators to book. “I, therefore, call for urgent probing and prosecution of all those who responsible for the current sorry state of the NDDC. “We cannot pretend that all is well in the Niger Delta region when NDDC has been hijacked by an individual to the detriment of the larger populace of our people. The President must act now or never,” King Whiskey explained.