Flingpord

  Fresh crisis looms over the Niger Delta Development Commission as ex-militants in the region have given the Federal Government a 14-day ultimatum within which to replace the NDDC Chairman-nominee, Lauretta Onochie, with Chief Bernard Okumagba. The ex-militants gave the ultimatum in a statement signed by their leader, ‘General’ Peter Aghogho, who is also the President of the Urhobo Youth Council, copies of which were made available to journalists in Warri on Tuesday. While rejecting the nomination of Lauretta Onochie, the ex-militants claimed that “the NDDC Act makes it very clear that the Chairman of the Commission must be from an oil-producing region.” Consequently, the ex-militants gave the Federal Government a 14-day deadline to appoint Okumagba in place of Onochie, noting that Okumagba had been passed by the National Assembly in 2019 for the position of the Managing Director of the Commission, and they thought it odd that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.),...