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| Sir Maurice Effiwatt |
15 October 2019
The All Cross River People’s Congress ACRPC has discredited the nomination of Mr Maurice Effiwatt as the Cross River nominee into the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC while consequently, calling for his removal from that board NEGROIDHAVEN has garnered.
Nevertheless, the pan-Cross River group also queried the general procedure of the nomination, appointment and thus constitution of the apex component of the NDDC by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The current disposition of the ACRPC is coming on the hills of the plethora of reservations and petitions across the nation generally challenging the nomination into and subsequent constitution of the 15-member NDDC board.
In a statement of the group made available to the press, it argued that Effiwatt’s nomination would not better the fortunes of the All Progressives Congress APC in the state considering that he being unpopular is been projected by a faction in the APC. ‘It would not unite the party’, it submitted.
Okokon Akabom the Director General and Efefiom Eton the General Secretary of the ACRPC particularly stated that, ‘We are writing to Mr President against Maurice Effiwatt’s nomination into the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC to represent our state, Cross River on the premises that, Effiwatt is an unpopular candidate being projected by a faction of the All Progressives Congress APC in the state. Again, being a former career civil servant, his nomination will not be of any political significance to the lot of the APC. He is generally not a people friendly individual.
‘It should be emphasised that for a man whose nomination is yet to be confirmed by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria let alone sworn in to have already announced the appointment of a two-term House of Assembly member Hon. Wilson Ekpenyong as Special Adviser, an individual who is still tossing between the PDP and APC, and who never came public during political campaigns in the 2019 general elections is a clear testament of Effiwatt’s insensitivity to the goal of rebuilding and reuniting the party after all that has befallen the party in the state as a result of division.
‘More still, the ACRPC wish to notify President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly that the nomination of Maurice Effiwatt in Cross River State as the state nominee in the new Niger Delta Development Commission board instead of a grass root mobiliser and community leader from the state is totally unacceptable.’
The group alleged that the development was not in tandem with the NDDC Act, of which section 4 addresses the rotation of the chairmanship position.
The ACRPC used the opportunity to request the timely intervention of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari to help address the characteristic disunity plaguing the All Progressives Congress in Cross River: ‘We are asking Mr President to help the APC in the state to unite across all lines. The level of disunity in the APC in Cross River is such that is undermining any attempt at making any positive strides. If this disunity is not resolved, it will kill the party in the state’, Akabom and Eton warned.
On Tuesday 27th August, president Buhari appointed 15 board members of the commission, with Pius Odubu, a former deputy governor of Edo state, as its chairman.
ACRPC as a pan-Cross River group represents the pristine values of justice, fairness and good governance.
