The Association of Anioma Professionals (AAP) has commended the Senate for confirming the nomination of Ms Lauretta Onochie by President Muhammadu Buhari as chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The AAP is a platform of professionals in various fields of endeavour of Delta North senatorial district extraction and has the socio-economic development of its people as its cardinal objective.

In a statement jointly signed by its president general, Mr. Peter Nkenchor and a member of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Emmanuel Emecheta, the group faulted the stance of some other groups that had opposed her nomination.

“The position of those groups was driven by selfish desires disguised as championing the interests of their ethnic groups. They are the same set of people that crippled the NDDC since its establishment.

“We align with President Buhari’s plan to reposition the Commission and in Ms. Lauretta Onochie, he has picked a personality that will jettison the business-as-usual attitude needed to make NDDC responsible and responsive to the yearnings of the long suffering people of Niger Delta”, AAP’s statement read.

They said that the agency has been held hostage by persons and groups who put their narrow interests over and above those of the people of Niger Delta, noting that at each cycle of appointment of a new leadership, they use blackmail and threat of violence to get themselves and their lackeys appointed with the sole aim of preventing NDDC from being responsive to the genuine interests of the people of the region.

“We commend President Buhari for shunning the blackmail and appointing a team led by Ms Lauretta Onochie that will bring the desired change in the running of the NDDC. We trust in the ability of Ms Onochie to steer the Commission to a new trajectory that will make it accountable to the people of the Niger Delta”, the Anioma group stated.

On December 20, 2022, the Senate confirmed Onochie’s nomination as chairman of the Commission alongside those of the managing director, Hon. Samuel Ogbuku from Bayelsa State as well as members of its board. Until her nomination, Onochie was the Special Assistant to President Buhari on Social Media.