June 09, (THEWILL)- A Civil Rights group, the Niger Delta Oil and Gas Producing Communities (NDOGPC), has accused Chief Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum, over the delay in constituting the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
In a statement by the group’s National Coordinator, Chief Preye Olomu, it stated that Sylva’s interest in nominating a supposedly inexperienced young Maxwell Okoh, a candidate from his own Bayelsa East District, said to have enjoyed lavish Federal appointments already, was causing disaffection and uproar among the people of the Bayelsa West District, supposedly short-changed so far in spite of their commitments and contributions to the party.
Olomu, while commending the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, for his choice of an Ekeremor son from Peretorugbene, Senator Denyanbofa Dimaro, to be the Managing Director for the forthcoming board, hinted that Sylva singlehandedly nominated other Federal appointees without ceding any to the Bayelsa West District.
The group mentioned names of recent Federal appointees in the APC to be persons from the East District (where Sylva is from) and a few from the Central District, with no appointee from the Bayelsa West District.
The group called on Sylva to step down his nomination of Maxwell Okoh as MD of the NDDC and allow Akpabio’s nomination of Dimaro sail through.
It said Akpabio had consulted with people of the district and the state at large before choosing Dimaro, who was unanimously accepted in order to do justice, equity and fair play to party faithful across the state.
According to the group, should Sylva fail to heed its warning by rooting for his own person, then he should be held responsible for the factionalisation and crisis that could erupt in the party.
They urged Akpabio to continue his good plans for the region, while the forensic audit continued to a logical conclusion.
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