A socio-cultural and community-based non-governmental organization, the Bonny Gentlemen’s League (BGL) has accused the Federal Government and its agencies and institutions, especially, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), of marginalizing Bonny Island in its policy implementations.

The BGL said this was against the backdrop of the strategic role Bonny Island has been playing in the economic sustenance of Nigeria being host to high value economic assets of the Federal Government.

This was at the core of issues raised in a communique the League issued after its 44th Annual Convention/22nd Annual General Meeting, which held on Sunday, December 24, 2023, in Bonny, Rivers State, which was signed by its Chairman, Current and National Affairs Committee; Torudoghubo Jamaica, Registrar; Victor Jumbo, PhD, and Chancellor; Squadron Leader Olam Allwell-Brown (Rtd.).

The League decried the non-appointment of a Bonny indigene into the NDDC Board since its inception, as well as marginalization of Bonny LGA in its project delivery drive, describing it as “the Agency’s manifest neglect of Bonny LGA in its project execution initiatives”.

The League called on the NDDC to revitalize and speedily execute the stalled Bonny Ring Road Project, which is a vital communication infrastructure to link the towns and satellite communities in Bonny East to the Metropolis and activate economic activities along that axis of the Local Government Area.

Checks by Kristina Reports indicate that aside an abandoned project in Peterside, the NDDC has not done any project in any of the 12 Wards of Bonny LGA, despite the fact that it consistently gets the three per cent allocation from the various multinationals in Bonny Island.

Shell Nigeria, TotalEnergies, BelemaOil, ExxonMobil, Nigeria LNG, Chevron, Daewoo, and Saipem, amongst others are some of the oil and gas majors operating in Bonny Island, which consistently remit three per cent of their profits running into billions of dollars to the NDDC without any benefit to their host, Bonny LGA.

Efforts by Kristina Reports to reach the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) via email proved abortive as at the time of this report.