NDDC: Protesters storm National Assembly, want Senate committee dissolved

A coalition of 23 civil society organisations on Friday stormed the National Assembly in Abuja to protest against what it described as the destruction of the Niger Delta Development Commission by “enemies and a looting cabal.”

The CSOs, under the aegis of Guardians of Democracy and Development and Empowerment for Unemployed Youths Initiative, demanded the dissolution of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta led by Senator Peter Nwaoboshi.

They asked the Senate to probe the activities of the Senator Nwaoboshi-led committee and convene a public hearing for stakeholders.

The protesters carried placards with inscriptions, ‘We, the Niger Delta people are not fools’, ‘The good people of Niger Delta must rise to save our NDDC’, ‘On united Niger Delta development we stand’, and ‘Don’t destroy our NDDC.’

From the National Assembly premises, they marched to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs where they also dropped a petition.

The spokesperson for the coalition and convener of GDD, Solomon Adodo, said, “The Senate should dissolve the Senate Committee on Niger Delta as presently constituted. The Senate should invalidate the screening exercise conducted by the Nwaoboshi-led committee for the NDDC board for the obvious reasons of bias.

“A probe into the activities of Senator Nwaoboshi should be initiated alongside a public hearing for stakeholders to bare their minds on his acts.”

The coalition said they were deeply disenchanted with the fact that the core mandate of the NDDC as enshrined in the establishment Act “has been consistently abused owing to the diversion and looting of funds meant for developmental projects.”