As the squabble surrounding the NDDC intensifies and sworn opponents go for one another, there are emerging indications that a plot to remove the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, from the control of the Niger Delta Affairs Ministry may be gathering steam.
It is not in the open, but the plot is being promoted as an alternative in some circles, if the attempt to tame the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio who is believed to nurse a presidential ambition does not succeed.
Akpabio may be a survivor of several wars, but the ongoing fight against him and the IMC which is intense must be one of his greatest fights. Joi Nunieh, a former Acting Managing Director who is one of those who have axes to grind has upped the stakes.
She now claims she slapped Akpabio for making sexual advances towards her.
“I slapped him”, Nunieh told Arise TV, “He tried to come on me. I am an Ogoni woman and nobody jokes with us. I showed Akpabio that Rivers women do not tolerate nonsense!”
Many are shocked by the revelation. There is no proof now, there may never be, but the news of Nunieh’s encounter with Akpabio at a guest house in Apo which she dropped on television without flinching has spread like bushfire.
Across the country, there are reactions as Nunieh’s latest outburst which brings a feminist perspective to the ongoing fight raises further questions, especially about what she was doing at a man’s private guest house.
It is not clear where Nunieh is leaning or who she may be working with, but analysts say her reference to Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, Deputy Senate President as the leader of the South South may have given her away as the struggle intensifies.
Cairo, a member of the IMC has already accused Omo-Agege who is believed to share very close ties with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of being the mastermind of the NDDC crisis which may turn into a massive consuming fire.
The IMC member said Omo-Agege’s grouse against the IMC was tired to his inability to produce his bosom friend with whom he served under the Ibori administration in Delta State as a prominent player at the NDDC.
In the midst of the confusion and the hunt for evidence by the Senate which has led to a N40 billion hearing on the Committee floor, sources say a subtle move to snatch control of the NDDC from the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs which is being hatched is taking root.
If the masterminds behind the plot succeed, the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, may become the ultimate beneficiary. It would regain control that it once had over the NDDC.
The Office of the SGF which is part of the Presidency has lost control of several parastatals in the last four years. At least 23 parastatals, which were domiciled under its control, have been moved.
The implication is that the coveted office which serves as the engine room of the federal administration has shrunk considerably in size and influence within the Buhari era.
This has equally resulted in a drastic reduction in the volume of resources which used to find its way back to the Presidency, particularly to the Office of the SGF.
“There is no doubt that the influence of the Office of the SGF has diminished in some way”, an insider remarked, “In this era of politics and political alignments, the SGF may not be in a position to fight. The office has been stripped of resources.”
Port Harcourt Telegraph investigations suggest that powerful persons whose ambitions are threatening to tear the stability of the NDDC apart; whose foot soldiers are actively involved in what is playing out; are behind the move to cart away the NDDC.
Akpabio may be in the eye of the storm, but the bigger picture is not about him. It is about what is happening to the people of the region and what would happen if external forces outside the region assume the power to determine who enters NDDC or who leaves.
The Telegraph is tracking the developing story and would feed its readers with the news as it breaks.