NDDC Board: Nominees Face Stiff Hurdle *Petitions Flood Security Agencies, Presidency
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Some of the nominees for appointment into the board of the NDDC are facing very tough clearance hurdles in the hands of security agencies in the country. The agencies are expected to screen and clear them, before they can be considered for screening by the senate.
This development is coming at a time that controversy has continued to trail the questionable list sent to the senate. Last week, TNN did an exclusive report to the effect that owing to the obvious errors, the senate decided to revert to The Presidency for it to rejig the list so that all nominees can be screened at the same time.
But while that is going on, it was learnt that the nominees had faced the code of conduct bureau for necessary information on their assets.
Other security agencies like the DSS was said to have also undertaken some profiling of the nominees. But a few of them are said to be having very dirty records that may hamper their security clearance.
A security source confided in our correspondent that the number of petitions against some of the nominees was too many. The source said those with very disturbing security records are not likely to be cleared.
Mention was made of a particular nominee with what the source called plenty of baggage that became a serious concern. The source said the petitions against that particular nominee were too heavy and could not be swept under the carpet.
The source ruled out the possibility of nominees with questionable past records being cleared and said the agencies were determined to be thorough in this direction.
In one of the petitions, a copy of which TNN obtained on Friday, the petitioners described a nominee as someone who could not be allowed to hold public office, considering what he did in his previous office.
According to the petitioners, the nominee “does not have the leadership capacity, moral and strength of character to be saddled with the very sensitive national assignment of such an intervention agency in the development of Niger Delta, on the basis of his (past) record of service.
“When he was appointed to serve (in his previous office), despite the fact that he had no record of experience in either public or private sector, his period of service which was a nightmare to the people of the state cannot be forgotten as he abused his office and power, thus putting the administration (he served) into negative light that warranted federal government searchlight.
“As a matter of fact, he was pivotal to the reign of terror and security breaches in the state capital leading to the federal government intervening on the security architecture of the state and huge cost to the administration between 2007-2012 with the act of deliberate brigandry(sic).
“(The nominee) constituted a nest of killers and a grand patron of different cult groups by recruiting several young men and women into dangerous cults to unleash mayhem; maiming and the killing of perceived political oppositions were all linked to him.
“The petitioners urged the president, Muhammadu Buhari, to replace those who may be indicted by security agencies.
Meanwhile, the people of Delta State are still not happy that their state was not represented on the board as provided for in the NDDC Act. It was learnt that one of the reasons for k-leg currently delaying the screening of the nominees, apart from feedback based on security checks, was the Delta debacle.
