NDDC: Group Kicks Against Nomination Of Gbenga Edema

MIMI OLY

A group, the Ondo South Mandate Group (OSMG) on Saturday kicked against the nomination of the Chairman, Ondo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission(OSOPADEC), Gbenga Edema, as new Commissioner representing the State on the Board of Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC).

The group comprising All Progressives Congress (APC) members, Oil Producing Communities and leaders of Ondo South Senatorial district said the nomination of Edema was fraught with irregularities.

A statement by the group’s Chairman and Secretary of (OSMG), Benson Odoro and Ayesa Adebambo, said since Edema is the Chairman, Ondo State Oil Area Development Commission (OSOPADEC), another person should have been nominated as the NDDC Commissioner.

Besides, the group said the appointment of Edema as OSOPADEC Boss by Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu was illegal, saying “He is not from the core oil-producing community in Ilaje Local Government Area of the State”

The group, which vowed to mobilize against Edema and the APC if President Muhammadu Buhari refused to rescind his decision on Edema, said the oil-producing communities in the Ilaje cannot continue to be marginalized by the government

They said, “Oil Communities in Ondo South Say No to Gbenga Edema and that Oil Producing Communities Demand for their Mandate from the APC.

The statement said, “Government has singlehandedly imposed Edema and we are baffled because he is not from the oil-producing community. In the history of Ondo State, this has never happened but this decision is detrimental to our destiny because it is an injury to the entire Ugbo kingdom”.

“Edema is from Mahin, which is not oil-producing communities. Since the inception of NDDC, it is people of Ugbo extraction that have been made NDDC Commissioner because they are the only oil-producing communities.”

“When Akeredolu made Edema the Chairman of OSOPADEC, we took it with a pinch of salt. It has now gone to the ridiculous level that he has been made the Ondo State representative on the board of NDDC.

“This is a clear injustice on the part of the goose that lays the egg that made the state an oil-producing state.”

The group said, “We have it on good authority that Edema did not have the blessing of the Governor and APC leadership before he got the nomination into the board of NDDC, he simply used OSOPADEC  funds to achieve his personal agenda of becoming Ondo State Representative on the board of NDDC”.

The group alleged that Edema has been lobbying to become the MD of NDDC but stronger interests from above took away that interest from him which now made him edge out former Ondo Representative on the board, Mr. Lucky Ayedatiwa, from the board and took over his seat.

The group pleaded with the Senate of the Federal Republic to reject the nomination of Edema in order to save the South Senatorial district from around round of crisis emanating from the nomination of someone who is not qualified for the position.