Group rejects Sementari’s appointment as NDDC chief.

President Muhammadu Buhari was on Thursday advised to reverse the appointment of Ibim Sementari (Rivers State) as the acting‎ Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
President Buhari had in December 22 last year dissolved the board of NDDC headed by Mr. Dan Abia (Akwa Ibom State) and announced Semenitari as his replacement in acting capacity.
The International Institute of Humanitarian and Environmental Law said Sementari’s appointment was against the rule of law.
Briefing journalists in Abuja, the Registrar of the Institute, Cyprian Edward- Ekpo, noted that Sementari’s appointment contravened the NDDC act which provided that when a managing director fails to finish his or her four year tenure, another person shall be appointed from his state to complete the term.
He said many elders and youths of Akwa Ibom State and other states of the Niger Delta region have reacted with hostility against what is perceived as injustice and a breach of those statutory provisions.
  
 

Pointing out that President Buhari has the right and power to dissolve the NDDC Board and the management committee, and to remove the Managing Director and Executive Director when found wanting, he r said that Akwa Ibom State is being denied its rightful place in breach of Section 3, 4 and 5 (2) of the NDDC Act.
He said: “By virtue of Section 5(1) (a) & (b) of the 1999 Constitution and Sections 3,4 and 5(2) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (CAP N86) LFN 2004 as preserved by Section 318 of the Constitution of Nigeria, President Buhari has erred in law in failing to appoint an indigene of Akwa Ibom State as a successor to the deposed Managing Director, Mr. Bassey Dan Abia, to complete the state’s tenure in the commission.