ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
Some Niger Delta stakeholders have waded into the alleged case of perjury against the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr Simbi Wabote.
The stakeholders, under the auspices of the Movement for the Survival of the Izon Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND), have called for caution and a cessation of smear campaign against Wabote by a former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Timi Frank.
Comrade Frank, a political activist, had on Wednesday, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the NCDMB boss, Simbi Wabote, over alleged breach of Code of Conduct for public officers in the country.
Frank had in a statement issued in Abuja rationalised that the move became necessary since Wabote allegedly admitted recently before an American Court of operating foreign bank accounts with Bank of America and HSBC Dubai.
But reacting to the development, MOSIEND in a statement by the Chairman, Central Zone, Taribolou Ogboriyo, and the Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emmanuel Tonye Isaac, condemned the brickbats against Wabote.
The group noted that Frank’s write up on the issue was rather unpopular, hasty and ill-advised, alleging that the motives and the intents of the write up were dangerous to the people of the Niger Delta.
The group said: “The purported publication could be likened to a personal opinion and self gratification which shouldn’t have come from the person of Mr. Timi Frank as an Ijaw man.
“Our stance is that since the matter is in court in the jurisdiction of where it was instituted in the United States of America, we tend not to make utterances in order not to show bias towards the concerned individual.
“Yet, our government owes its citizens and appointees a duty to defend our national integrity and we believe that our counterpart institutions and agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria do have the capacity and what it takes to handle and dispense with cases of such nature.
“We want to state that our position as a group which was formed to protect the collective interests of every Ijaw man to aspire and be supported towards the emancipation of the Ijaw people’s free will is hereby guaranteed. And every necessary support would be given to that individual to achieve their personal goal to the general good of the Ijaw people.
“Therefore, as a group, we are taking on the person of Mr. Timi Frank to refrain from calling for the sack of a fellow Ijaw man who has done so much in his capacity as the Executive Secretary of NCDMB for the Niger Delta and Nigeria in general.
“Wabote is a round peg in a round hole. He has no criminal records. He is highly regarded in his interventions to stimulate our local economy like massive investments in modular refineries, oil and gas parks, technical and vocational education, gas cylinder manufacturing, fertilizer and petrochemical projects, research and innovation, enterprise development and human capital developmental programmes, among others.”
MOSIEND urged Frank and his likes to hold their thoughts to themselves rather than politicising the matter to a proportion which is tantamount to a pull-down syndrome.
The group said it was left with no choice but to protect one of their own in the best manner to champion the Ijaw cause and struggle over and above any detractors.
MOSIEND further said: “We are also using this medium to encourage Engr Simbi Wabote not to be distracted by any unnecessary detractors that seem to be shortsighted in their ways of treating issues.
“We urge Wabote to continue to ensure outstanding performance in his given mandate as the golden goose that is revamping and reshaping the dynamics of the Niger Delta and the nation in general.”