A group, Our Niger Delta (OND), has described the verbal attack on the managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Samuel Ogbuku by a legal practitioner, Jonah Okah, as “misplaced, subjective and one done out of ill will.”
OND, in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Port Harcourt yesterday, alleged that Okah had published and criticised the board’s many landmark projects and accused Ogbuku of being worse than his predecessors.
The statement, signed by the group’s national coordinator, Ambassador Ejero Ese, stated that the NDDC managing director’s leadership is all-inclusive and grassroots-based, always consulting the people before any project is executed.
It further stated that the water hyacinth clearing jobs and the solar-powered street lights that Okah was criticising were not done without the knowledge of the communities’ leadership, adding that Ogbuku has not awarded any water hyacinth jobs since he assumed office.
The group explained that, in most cases, the communities write to the NDDC begging the commission to intervene in the area of solar lights and clearing of their creeks and canals, which are no longer passable due to blockage by water hyacinths and other weeds.
It said, “What Okah ought to have done, rather than criticising, was to call on the Niger Delta governors to form a synergy with the NDDC to carve out areas where they can complement the efforts of the commission, and not claim to be ignorant of the many high profile road projects undertaken by the Ogbuku-led leadership.”
The statement stated that the solar street light projects which the Ogbuku-led NDDC has spread across the Niger Delta have brought about a drastic reduction in the crime rate and also boosted nightlife and other economic activities because the people no longer have to close their businesses early due to insecurity and darkness which were the order of the day before the brilliant idea was conceived by the current leadership of the commission.