Court asked to declare NDDC interim management committee illegal

The plaintiffs, Itoldem Daghware, Bishop Chuck Johnson and Akinterinwa Julius, are contending that the committee’s inauguration by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, “is in flagrant abuse of the NDDC Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria because the IMC members presently composed of representation from five instead of the nine oil-producing states.”

The applicants filed the case on behalf of themselves as elders and community leaders/members of oil producing communities of Ilaje, Umuorji (Ohaji/Egbema) and Uhrobo in the Niger Delta region.

The respondents include the Attorney General of the Federation; the National Assembly; the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs; the NDDC; Prof. David Pondei; Dr. Cairo Ojougboh; Mr. Ibanga Bassey Etang; Mrs. Caroline Nagbo and Mrs. Cecilia Bukola Akintomide.

In the originating summons filed by their counsel, Ademola Dere and James Ode Abah at the weekend, the plaintiffs want the court to determine whether by the provisions of the NDDC Act, the minister, on the order of the president, could appoint and constitute the IMC of the NDDC.

They argued that the action was “illegal, unconstitutional and a flagrant abuse of Section 2,7,9, 10 and 12(2), (3) of the NDDC Act (as amended). The claimants said they want the court to declare whether the “purported appointment of Prof. Pondei and others by the minister as members of the IMC was not alien to the provisions of Section 2,7,9, 10 and 12(2), (3) of the NDDC (Establishment, Etc) (Amendment) Act 2017.”