Niger Delta Women group call on Buhari to sack Dr Ojougboh; says he is not qualified to be NDDC EDP

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Niger-Delta Women Integrity Vanguard (NDWIV) has called on
President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgency sack Dr Cairo Ojougboh,
Executive Director, Project, of the Interim Management Committee of Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC), saying that he is unqualified to hold such
position.

The women group in a press statement made available to us
signed by its National Coordinator, Mrs Grace Nene Iworiso it stated that the
appointment of Dr Cairo Ojougboh as ED, Project by President Buhari is a gross
violation of the NDDC Act.

According to statement which read in part:

“We have watched the goings-on at the Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC) with some interest for a while believing that the
actions of the Minister for Niger Delta Godswill Akpabio and indeed the federal
government were altruistic. But recent events convince us that Chief Akpabio is
on an agenda that can only lead to the ruin of the NDDC and more crises among
the people of the region. We are compelled, therefore, to raise some pertinent
matters for the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigerians as a
whole in the hope that the president will do the needful and bring sanity to
the NDDC.

“One of these issues that bother us is the membership of the
interim management committee, which we believe is packed with unqualified
people recruited to further Akpabio’s own selfish agenda and which only value
is acting as yes-men. One of such unqualified members is Dr Cairo Ojougboh who
is currently acting as ED Projects. By virtue of the NDDC Act, Cairo Ojugboh is
not qualified to be a member of the management of NDDC whether on Interim or
Substantive basis because he is not an indigene of any Oil Producing Local
Government Area in Delta State or any State in Nigeria.  His appointment as Acting Executive Director,
Projects, in this Interim Management Committee set up by President Buhari is in
gross violation of the NDDC Act.

 “Appointing Dr Cairo
Ojugboh in the first instance was an embarrassing error President Buhari was
apparently misled to make. This further confirms our fears that those who
President Buhari wholly and confidently trusts to advise him aright on national
issues and appointments are sadly betraying and failing him.

“Dr Cairo Ojougboh is from Ika South Local Government Area
of Delta State which is not an Oil Producing Local Government Area at all. How
then did he get this appointment in the first place? He also does not have the
requisite skill for the position he holds, which is Executive Director
Projects, which has always been held by qualified engineers since the
establishment of the Commission. Ojugboh is a medical doctor and only a warped
mind could have recommended him for the job of Executive Director Projects. By
his conduct at the commission so far it is clear that he is Akpabio’s
Man-Friday for whatever personal agenda.

“We therefore call on President Buhari to immediately sack
him from the management of NDDC the same way he sacked Dr Joi Nunieh for the
lesser offence of not having her National Youth Service discharge certificate
as required by the Laws of Nigeria. We are aware of the schemes of Ojugboh
which led to the unfortunate sack of Joy Nunieh, a qualified woman who hails
from oil-rich Ogoniland.

“It will be wrong and unconstitutional to keep Dr Cairo
Ojougboh for an extra day in NDDC having not been qualified to be a member of
the management of the NDDC in the first place, otherwise we will have no option
but to accuse President Buhari of protecting male appointees and easily sacking
more qualified female appointees who commit far lesser infractions.

The sack of Finance Minister Mrs Kemi Adeosun for presenting
false NYSC Discharge Certificate is still fresh in our minds at a time other
male officials with similar infractions were let go.

“We are putting the federal government on notice that we
will not sit idly by and watch the desecration of the NDDC management
requirements as laid out in the Act setting up the development agency, which
Akpabio and his cohorts have bastardized, as it concerns Dr Cairo Ojugboh,
whose appointment is totally offensive to us and the people of the Niger Delta.