OIL producing communities in Imo State under the aegis of Urashi Peoples’ Congress, have petitioned the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to protest alleged lopsided appointments in the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission.

In the petition titled ‘An urgent appeal for correction of lopsided appointments in the Niger Delta Development Commission leadership,’ signed by the group’s coordinator, Reginald Uwakwe, in Abuja, on Sunday.

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The communities expressed disappointment that key appointments, especially into the office of Managing Director, has been skewed in favour of only four, out of the nine oil producing states.

They alleged that so far, the position of MD of the NDDC has rotated among: Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa and Delta states, to the exclusion of others. This, they claim, was in violation of Part IV of the Act establishing the NDDC.

While urging the president to address the anomaly the petition read in part, “We, the Urashi Peoples’ Congress, an umbrella body of all the Oil Producing Local Government Areas in Imo State, want to bring to your attention the urgent need for the correction of lopsided appointments in the leadership of the NDDC.

“The bias appointment, which has persisted since the Commission came into existence over the years, has assumed a critical and sensitive dimension of great concern that if left uncorrected is capable of threatening the operations and truncating the activities of the Commission.”

While listing alleged beneficiaries of the lopsided appointments, the petition further read, “it is pertinent to inform you that a compromise was reached that the position would be rotated within the nine oil producing states, namely: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.”