Akwa Ibom NBA chairmen drag Buhari to court for not naming one of them NDDC boss

FOUR Akwa Ibom State legal practitioners have dragged President Muhammadu Buhari before a federal high court over the non-appointment of one of the state's indigenes as the managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

 

In December last year, President Buhari sacked the former NDDC boss Bassey Dan-Abia midway into his four-year tenure and replaced him with Ibim Seminitari from Rivers State. However, lawyers, Aniekan Akpan, Essien Obong, Akpadiaha Ebitu and Emmanuel Ukor, the chairmen of Uyo, Ikot Ekpene, Eket and Oron branches of the Nigerian Bar Association, respectively described as unlawful, the appointment of a non-indigene of Akwa Ibom to the position.

 

Other respondents joined in the suit include the senate president Senator Bukola Saraki, speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, justice minister Abubakar Malami and acting NNDC managing director of Ibim Semenitari. Citing relevant sections of the NDDC Act, the plaintiffs seeking a declaration that the premature termination of Mr Dan-Abia’s appointment as NDDC managing director by the president before the end of the four-year tenure allocated to Akwa Ibom State is unlawful and a gross violation of the people’s rights.

 

They are also asking the court to declare that Ms Semenetari’s appointment is illegal and a gross violation of the rights of the Akwa Ibom people, particularly lawyers of Akwa Ibom origin. They equally claim it is a violation of the principles of proportional sharing of bureaucratic offices as enshrined in the Federal Character Commission Act Cap F7 Law of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

 

Mr Dan-Abia was appointed on December 3, 2013 and the lawyers have urged the court to declare that Akwa Ibom is the legitimate state statutorily entitled to produce an acting or substantive NDDC managing director. They argued that he should continue and complete the four years tenure of office allocated to the state by the rotation arrangement as enshrined in Sections 3 and 12(1)(d) of the NDDC Act.

 

They are praying the court to compel the President to terminate Ms Semenitari’s appointment. They are also seeking an order of the court compelling the president to immediately appoint any Akwa Ibom State indigene as acting managing director or alternatively, the managing director and present him to the National Assembly for confirmation to complete the four years tenure of office allocated to the state.