NDDC boss, Ogbuku, shows up in Port Harcourt amid arrest rumours

The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, has met with agricultural stakeholders in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, amid widespread rumours of his alleged arrest.

Dr. Ogbuku addressed participants at a two-day strategic session on Thursday, convened to prepare for an upcoming agricultural summit aimed at boosting food production and diversifying the Niger Delta economy.

His public appearance comes in sharp contrast to reports circulating in some media outlets claiming he was arrested over an alleged coup plot.

At the meeting, the NDDC chief urged the South-South region to look beyond oil dependency and embrace agriculture as a key driver of economic transformation. The session drew attendance from Commissioners for Agriculture and Permanent Secretaries from all Niger Delta states.

Earlier, a close associate of Dr. Ogbuku and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Yekini Nabena, dismissed the arrest reports as politically motivated falsehoods.

According to Nabena, “Dr. Sam Ogbuku is one of the trusted and reliable hands in the Renewed Hope Government, hence his political enemies are jittery and deliberately being mischievous.”

He urged the public to disregard the claims, stressing that Ogbuku was present and active at the Port Harcourt event.

“We woke up yesterday to see some fabricated social media reports that Dr. Sam Ogbuku was arrested. And we asked, for what? Well, the ongoing agricultural summit in Port Harcourt, where the Managing Director spoke live this morning and it was carried live on two national televisions. We hope that this will put the purveyors of fake news to shame.

“We ask the general public to disregard the fake news and see it as it is, fake,” Nabena said.

He added that Dr. Ogbuku remains focused on his duties at the NDDC and has no interest in “dirty local politics” being played by some individuals in the region.