 The Nigerian Senate has confirmed Loretta Onochi, special assistant to the president as chairman of the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. The confirmation of Onochi and 12 others as members of the NDDC board followed the presentation of a report by the vice chairman of the Senate Committee on NDDC, Senator Amos Bullos, on Tuesday in plenary. The committee wishes to recommend for confirmation the nomination of the following as chairman and members of the Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. Loretta Ifain Onochi as chairman, Governing Board of NDDC, during the screening exercise, the committee observed that two of the presidential nominees were absent and there was no information from the special assistant to the president on national assembly matters explaining the absent. The two presidential nominees that were absent and therefore no screen are, one, Dr. Pires Ekperimwen Odudu, nominee to represent Edo State on the Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, two, Injena Anthony Akane, nominee to represent Emo State on the Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission. Accordingly, the committee stepped down the screening of the two nominees for reason of non-appearance before the committee. NDDC Before their confirmation, some senators objected to Onochi's confirmation saying she's not from an oil-producing community but reverse is senator George Sekibose, who says this issue is not clearly defined in the act's establishment for NDDC. NDDC Submit that we should add a clause in our resolution calling on not only this president but all future presidents who will have to implement the act to comply in their nominations with the requirements of indigestion. But what the law says is that the nominees should come from oil-producing areas. But that anyhow you interpret it, it cannot go outside communities, it cannot go outside a local government and it should, in my view, not go outside the senatorial district. It should not be interpreted to mean the same thing as an oil-producing state and therefore you go to an oil-producing state and you nominate anybody from within that state. I disagree with that. So, Mr President, this has been done. Because the NDDC Commission, I've been there for a very long time. We have tried to be sure that it was, you know, the nominees were sent to us. I couldn't do much. Now, the president in his own wisdom, when he's almost leaving office, he could have closed his eyes and then sent this thing to us. So, whatever will form a bottleneck to the nomination of the commission, I think we should leave it. Because the truth argument about closed community and oil-producing community have not been properly defined. It has not. It's going to create more problems, even the PIA. That problem will be there. People assume that oil-producing areas is where you have flow stations, where you have a sound path, water from the ground, that things are moving horizontally. If they drill here, it doesn't mean that. In a remark while performing the confirmation, President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawar, charged the newly confirmed board to hit the ground running by and backing on projects that will ensure peace and stability in the Niger Delta region. He also requested that copies of the audit reports be made available to the National Assembly. That information will the Senate confirm the nomination of Loretta Ifani Onoche from Delta State representing South-South as chairman in the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. Those of you who say aye, those again say nay, the ayes have it. The nomination of Loretta Ifani Onoche from Delta State representing South-South is hereby confirmed as chairman in the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. Time is of essence here. This confirmed chairman and members should hit the ground running. So much time has been lost. I believe that from now until when the attorney will expire, they have a lot of work to do because NDDC itself, as we all know, is an interventionist institution. I also want to add to the executive arm of government to send us the results of the forensic audit. Yes, let's see what the forensic audit, because forensic audit of the NDDC has taken toll on the NDDC itself. Most of the time the argument was there shouldn't be the management in place and the forensic audit is over. Okay, now the forensic audit is over, we want to see what the outcome is and the best place to bring it to is the National Assembly. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.