…disregard False Stories – NDDC
By Ime Silas
The management of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, said it does not know the cause of the death of its Acting Executive Director, Finance, Mr. Ibanga Etang.
Director, Corporate Affairs, Mr. Charles Obi Odili, stated this in a press release this Friday evening. The late Ibanga Etang, who died yesterday, hailed from Akwa Ibom state.
The Commission’s position came few hours after the governor of Akwa Ibom, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, insisted during the inauguration of the State-owned Isolation centre at Ituk Mbang, that the state would be interested in knowing the cause of Etang’s death.
The NDDC statement reads: “The Management of the Niger Development Commission, NDDC, wishes to announce the death of its Acting Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Chief Ibanga Bassey Etang. He died in the early hours of Thursday in Port Harcourt.
“This announcement is coming at this time because of the need to inform family members. The Commission is not aware of the cause of his death as at the time of this release (6.45pm on Friday, 29, 2020).
“In line with fears of the current time, the Commission took the precautionary measure of temporarily shutting down its headquarters for two weeks. Staff were also asked to self-isolate. This action does not presuppose the cause of death.
“An autopsy report is being expected and when this is ready, it would be released with the consent of the family.
The NDDC is, therefore, miffed by spurious and uncharitable coloration being championed by mischief makers on the occasion of the demise of Chief Ibanga Bassey Etang, whose untimely death occurred at the early hours of Thursday the 28th of May 2020.
“The Commission is on course to issuing a comprehensive fact-based statement in consonance with the bereaved family, but for the unwarranted and unsubstantiated reportage which is flying in devilish propensities.
Until the autopsy report is release from the Commission’s stables, every story on this matter, flies in the face of truth.
“The Commission also wishes to state that the rumours over the internal memo for staff of the Commission to stay away, so that sanitary and hygienic cleaning of the Commission can take place, is most unfortunate. The idea behind it is purely precautionary.
The commission wishes, therefore, to appeal to those mean spirited, whose ambition is to always turn truth on its head, to seek a path of repentance.
The NDDC is determined to deliver on its core mandate to the good people of the Niger Delta region. Neither slander nor provocative insinuations will deter us”.
May 29, 2020.
