JUST IN: President Buhari removes Pondei, appoints Akwa as NDDC’s Interim Administrator

By Our Correspondent

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Mr Effiong Okon Akwa as the Interim Administrator of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Mr Akwa, who until his new appointment, was the Acting Executive Director, Finance and Administration, of the NDDC, under the Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei-led Interim Management Committee (IMC).

According to a statement issued Saturday night by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, Akwa would henceforth oversee the affairs of the Commission till the end of the ongoing forensic auditing of the interventionist agency.

“President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of an interim administrator to oversee the affairs of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

“He is Mr Effiong Okon Akwa, the Ag. Executive Director, Finance and Administration of the Commission, who is to assume headship till completion of the forensic audit.

“Mr Akwa is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

“The development became necessary as a result of plethora of litigation and a restraining order issued recently against the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC by a Federal High Court in Abuja”, the statement said.

It would be recalled that the administration of the Commission, since it was handed over to the IMC by President Buhari, had been faced with stiff opposition by various categories of the oil-rich Niger Delta region’s stakeholders.

There had also been varying allegations, including financial impropriety, leveled against the IMC and its leadership, leading to a National Assembly probe and a short-lived faceoff between the federal lawmakers on one side and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and the IMC on the other.