NDDC Board: Ijaw groups tackle Fed Govt on injustice

• Published date: 18 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Ijaw rights groups; Ijaw Interest Advocates (IIA) and the Izanzan Intellectual Camp (IIC) have begun mobilisation across oil-producing communities in the Niger Delta, in preparation against what they described as unending injustice against such communities.

The groups, in a joint statement in Abuja, berated the Federal Government for allegedly remaining bent on perpetuating a system of deliberate marginalisation against oil-producing communities, which they said had given so much to the development of Nigeria and had received nothing in return.

The groups, in the statement by their Coordinator, Arerebo Salaco Yerinmene (Snr), frowned at the constitution of the recently inaugurated Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), noting that the Chairman of the new Board, Lauretta Onochie, just like many instances before now, was appointed out of a non-oil producing community in Delta State.

They alleged that the Federal Government had consistently worked against giving needed opportunities to people from the oil-producing areas so as to perpetually keep them impoverished.

'NDDC was created specifically for the development of oil producing communities and the people in terms of staffing...