By Akinwale Kasali

As the crisis between stakeholders in the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Okon Umana remains unabated, Governor Duoye Diri of Bayelsa State, has vowed that Niger Delta Stakeholders would resist any interference in the administration of the NDDC.

The Bayelsa State Governor made this remarks today at the Bayelsa State Government House in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State while receiving NDDC management team in Bayelsa State to perform the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a prototype building by the Commission.

Governor Diri stressed that NDDC is independent of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and cannot be under the Umana Okon led ministry.

The statement of the Bayelsa State Governor is coming at heels of prevailing controversies over purported directive by the Niger Delta Ministry for Personnel Audit at the Commission.

Governor Diri however urged President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently inaugurate a substantive Governing Board for the interventionist agency in line with extant Law.

Gbe added that the NDDC urgently needs a substantive Governing Board in order to meet the yearning of the people of the Niger Delta region in tandem with the mandate of the Commission.

In a Press statement, the Governor said that, “Someone from Kano State can be appointed to head the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs but that cannot be done in the case of NDDC.”

According to the Governor, the Act setting up NDDC makes reference to only indigenes from the Niger Delta region. It is for this reason that an interim administration can not really take tough decisions for fear of the security of his appointment.”

The Governor therefore call on President Buhari “to resolve this overlap between the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and the NDDC by constituting a governing board to run the affairs of the NDDC”.