The nine-oil producing states in Niger Delta region have resolved to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari over the recently reconstituted board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in order to maintain peace in the region.
The governors who met late Thursday night at the Bayelsa Governor’s Lodge, Abuja, sued for peace and called for calm among the indigenes in the region who had been demonstrating since the new board was constituted.
President Buhari had on Wednesday appointed former Edo state governor, Dr. Pius Odubu, as NDDC chairman-designate, Bernard Okumagba from Delta state as managing director of the commission.
The 16-man new board also has Otobong Ndem from Akwa Ibom, who was appointed as the executive director, projects; Maxwell Okoh from Bayelsa state; Jones Erue from Delta state; Victor Ekhatar from Edo state; Joy Nunieh from Rivers state; Nwogu Nwogu from Abia state; Theodore Allison from Bayelsa state; Victor Antai from Akwa Ibom State; Maurice Effiwatt from Cross River state; Olugbenga Elema from Ondo state; Uchegbu Kyrian from Imo State; and Aisha Muhammed from Kano state representing North-west, Ardo Zubairu from Adamawa state is to represent the North-east; while Badmus Mutalib from Lagos state will represent the South-west region area as members on the board.
The Bayelsa state governor, Henry Seriake Dickson, who addressed journalists at the end of the meeting, expressed worry over the “composition of the board” and gave the assurance that “critical issues concerning oil-producing states” would be tabled before President Buhari at the proposed meeting.
He said, “We intend as a body to meet with the president in no distant future. It is necessary we do that so we can maintain the existing peace in our region. However, we call for calm because we are aware people have been protesting since the new board was announced.”
Four governors and two deputies attended the meeting.
The governors are those of Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Edo and Ondo states, while the deputy governors of Imo and Abia represented their governors.
