SAN FRANCISCO, October 11, (THEWILL) – The Senate on Tuesday approved the nomination of 16 nominees for the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari sent the names of nominees to the Upper Chamber for approval.
The President had on September 28, 2016 communicated to the Senate wherein he requested the confirmation of the nomination of former Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba as Chairman, Nsima Udo Ekere as Managing Director and 17 others as Executive Directors and Members of the NDDC Board.
Presenting the report of his committee on the floor of the Senate, the Chairman, Senate Committee on the Niger Delta, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi said his committee conducted an open screening for the nominees on Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th October and was guided by the Act establishing the NDDC and other relevant laws.
Those whose appointments were confirmed were Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (Cross River State) as Chairman; Nsima Ekere (Akwa Ibom) as Managing Director; Adjogbe Samuel (Delta) as Executive Director (Project); and Mene Derek (Rivers) as Executive Director (Finance and Administration).
Members of the board, as approved by the Senate, are Frank George (Akwa Ibom), Brambaifa Nelson (Bayelsa), Sylvester Nsa (Cross River), Ogaga Ifowodo (Delta), Uwuilekhue Saturday (Edo), Harry Dabibi (Rivers), Bernard Banfa (North-Central), Yahaya Mohammed (North-East) and Mustapha Dankadai (North-West).
Other approved members of the board include: Mahmoud Isa-Dutse (Federal Ministry of Finance) and Abdul-Kazeem Bayero (Federal Ministry of Environment).
The senators however rejected the nominations of three nominees, namely Donatus Enyinnayah (Abia State), Olatokunbo Ajasin (Ondo State) and Igo Iweli (Niger Delta) for either not representing oil producing states or non-oil producing areas of their states.
Osita Izunaso (Imo State) was also dropped from the list as he was said not to have appeared before the Senate Committee on Niger Delta for screening.
Similarly, the Senate on the same day sent the list of nominees for the board of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, as sent by President Muhammadu Buhari, to the Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy for screening.
The nominees are Akintunde Akinwande (South-West) as Chairman; Sanusi Garba (North-West) as Vice Chairman. The Commissioners are Nathan Shanti (North-East), Moses Arigu (North-Central), Dafe Akpeneye (South-South), Frank Okafor (South-East) and Musiliu Oseni (South-West).
