You Can’t Sack Us! As NDDC Board Drags Buhari To Court

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• Recently dissolved board  of the of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, have asked the National Industrial Court sitting in Abuja, to declare that President Muhammadu Buhari has no powers to sack them as their appointments are governed by statutes and for a fixed period, as same period has not expired.
• The Federal Government had recently sent circulars through the office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, dated July 16, 2015, Ref. No. SGF.19/S.81/XIX/964 and July 23, 2015, Ref. No. SGF.55/S.2 that all boards stand dissolved.
• The Sen Bassey Ewa-Henshaw led board, through their counsel, Mr Ebun-Olu Adegborowa, is contending that the circular were wrongly applied to NDDC.

They are praying the court to; “Declare that the letters respectively, are ultra vires, ineffective and ineffectual to ground the dissolution of the 4th Governing Board of the NDDC and the same are invalid, null and void and of no effect whatsoever, in so far as they relate to the dissolution of the said Governing Board.

According to them; “By virtue of the NDDC Establishment Act, the Governing Board of the commission cannot be dissolved, either through the letters dated July 16, 2015, Ref. No. SGF.19/S.81/XIX/964 and July 23, 2015, Ref. No. SGF.55/S.2, respectively, or in any other manner that constitutes a violation of sections 2,3,5 and other extant provisions of the said NDDC Act.”

• Defendants in the suit are the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senate and House of Representatives. Their counsel pointed out that by virtue of section 6 (6) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, once parties have submitted their dispute before a competent court, none of them is allowed to resort to self-help or to take any step that may jeopardize the due hearing of the matter on its merit.