Reps move to include Lagos as NDDC state

TRACKING___A proposed law in House of Representatives, seeking to include Lagos on the list of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) States, is in process.

The Bill entitled: “A Bill for An Act to Amend the Niger-Delta Development Commission, NDDC Act 2000, to Provide for the Inclusion of Lagos State in the Commission as an Oil Producing State”, was obtained from National Assembly resorts by VANGUARD yesterday.

The Bill is sponsored by Rep. Babatunde Hunpe (APC-Lagos).

Section 2 of the NDDC Act, is amended to add Lagos in the definition of NDDC member States.

The Bill explains that the amendment seeks to “make provision for the membership of Lagos State in the Commission”.

Recall that the NDDC was established by an Act of the National Assembly in the year 2000, to accelerate development in the oil-producing states of the South-south and Southeast, namely Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Imo, Ondo, Edo and Rivers States.

The Bill to create the Commission was rejected by the then government of President Olusegun Obasanjo, but the National Assembly went ahead, overriding the president’s veto power and declaring the Commission established, with Dr Onyeama Ugochukwu of Abia State, as its pioneer Managing Director.

The government of Lagos State was some years ago declared after a geological survey as a littoral or oil-producing state.