urces close to the NDDC Managing Director have revealed to Crossfire Reports about a plot to malign the personality of the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, over activities marking his recent 50th birthday celebration that saw him being celebrated by family and friends in Port Harcourt, Abuja and his home state of Bayelsa.
Dr. Samuel Ogbuku who turned 50 years on August 19, 2025, structured his 50th birthday celebration as a man of vision, humility and faith around his core values of intellectual reflection, communal celebration and thanksgiving to God.
Supported by his family, friends, colleagues and stakeholders who came to honour his life of service and commitment on this milestone was not anything extraordinary, as we see average Nigerians celebrate their milestones everyday with various elaborate ceremonies.
It is common practice in Nigeria today for family, friends and associates to pull resources together to help celebrate their friends, loved ones and associates. It is a trend that has been going on now for almost a decade. Friends come together to raise funds for burials, birthdays, support book launches and sundry celebrations.
The attempt by unscrupulous individuals to use the milestone celebration of any Nigeria whether in public or private service to drag that individual into public opprobrium is highly condemnable especially when such accusations are merely speculative.
For the records, it should be noted that the events marking Dr. Samuel Ogbuku’s 50th birthday celebration are well documented thus: a Book Launch in Abuja, a Dinner in Port Harcourt, and a Thanksgiving Service held in his home town Ayakoro in Ogbia LGA, Bayelsa State.
Any suggestion of an ‘after party’ is a figment of the imagination of the harbingers of falsehood according to a source close to the NDDC operations.
This whole saga looks like a deliberate effort to distract from Ogbuku’s record of service and the NDDC’s ongoing work in the Niger Delta.
