Senate approves 16 nominees, drops four for NDDC board

The Senate on Tuesday approved the nomination of 16 nominees for the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission.

President Muhammadu Buhari had sent the names of nominees for the NDDC board to the Senate for approval.

Those whose appointments were confirmed were Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (Cross River State) as Chairman; Nsima Ekere (Akwa Ibom) as Managing Director; Adjogbe Samuel (Delta) as Executive Director (Project); and Mene Derek (Rivers) as Executive Director (Finance and Administration).

Members of the board, as approved by the Senate, are Frank George (Akwa Ibom), Brambaifa Nelson (Bayelsa), Sylvester Nsa (Cross River), Ogaga Ifowodo (Delta), Uwuilekhue Saturday (Edo), Harry Dabibi (Rivers), Bernard Banfa (North-Central), Yahaya Mohammed (North-East) and Mustapha Dankadai (North-West).

Other approved members of the board were Mahmoud Isa-Dutse (Federal Ministry of Finance) and Abdul-Kazeem Bayero (Federal Ministry of Environment).

The legislature however rejected the nominations of three nominees, namely Donatus Enyinnayah (Abia State), Olatokunbo Ajasin (Ondo State) and Igo Iweli (Niger Delta) for either not representing oil producing states or non-oil producing areas of their states. Osita Izunaso (Imo State) was also dropped from the list as he was said not to have appeared before the Senate Committee on Niger Delta for screening.

In a related development, the Senate on Tuesday sent the list of nominees for the board of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, as sent by President Muhammadu Buhari, to the Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy for screening.

The nominees are Akintunde Akinwande (South-West) as Chairman; Sanusi Garba (North-West) as Vice Chairman. The Commissioners are Nathan Shanti (North-East), Moses Arigu (North-Central), Dafe Akpeneye (South-South), Frank Okafor (South-East) and Musiliu Oseni (South-West).