President Buhari inaugurates North-East Development Commission

President Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated the North-East Development Commission (NEDC).

The President said that N10 billion take-off grant to the Commission has already been captured in the 2019 budget.

The Commission had last month presented a budget of N55 billion to the Senate out of which the grant of N10 billion is for humanitarian interventions.

The inauguration took place before the commencement of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

Buhari had in January sent to the Senate names of nominees to the Commission for confirmation with Paul Tarfa, as chairman of the Commission.

The Senate had also confirmed Mohammed Alkali as its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer and nine others as members of the board.

The members are Musa Yashi, Executive Director Humanitarian Affairs; Mohammed Jawa, Executive Director, Admin and Finance; Omar Mohammed, Executive Director, Operations and David Kente, member representing North East zone.

Others are Asmau Mohammed, member representing North West zone; Benjamin Adanyi, Member representing North Central zone; Olawale Oshun, member representing South West zone; Theodore Ekechi, member representing South-East and Obasuke McDonald, member representing South-South zone.

The Senate, in October 2016, passed the bill for the establishment of the North East Development Commission to coordinate the rebuilding of the insurgency-ravaged North East Nigeria