A former Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Director, Project Monitoring and Supervision, Dr. Emmanuel Audu-Ohwavborua, has highlighted the contributions of late elder statesman, Chief Albert Korubo Horsfall, to the development of the Niger Delta. Horsfall, who recently died at the age of 84, was the pioneer Chairman of the Oil Minerals Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC. Audu-Ohwavborua made these remarks at an event organised in Horsfall’s honour at the NDDC Headquarters in Port Harcourt, on September 24, 2026.
The event brought together serving and former officials of the Commission, including former managing directors and chief executive officers, who paid tribute to the late elder statesman and his role in the formative years of federal development intervention in the oil-producing region. Members of the NDDC board and management signed the condolence register during the ceremony. Audu-Ohwavborua noted that Horsfall’s contribution to the Niger Delta could not be separated from the institutional history of the NDDC.
Horsfall was the pioneer Chairman of OMPADEC, established in 1992 to address development challenges in oil-producing communities. The commission was subsequently replaced by the NDDC in 2000 under a new legislative framework with a wider mandate covering the Niger Delta region. Audu-Ohwavborua said Horsfall was at the centre of the early development of the intervention framework, adding that he also laid the foundation stone of the NDDC headquarters building in 1995.
The project, he recalled, remained incomplete for years before the Federal Executive Council approved its re-award in 2017, with practical completion achieved in 2019. He said the decision to remember Horsfall at the same headquarters he helped initiate decades earlier offered a symbolic connection between the pioneer intervention agency and the modern institution that succeeded it.
Before his Niger Delta development role, Horsfall was a high ranking official in Nigeria’s security and intelligence services. A trained police officer and pioneer member of the former National Security Organisation, NSO, he later became the pioneer Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, and subsequently the second Director-General of the State Security Service, SSS, now known as the Department of State Services, DSS.
His career also extended into traditional and regional leadership. A son of the Kalabari Kingdom in Rivers State, Horsfall held the Omekwe Paramountcy and was a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the Pan Niger Delta Forum. Among the former NDDC chief executives present at the remembrance were Chief Ndutimi Alaibe, Obong Nsima Ekere, Mrs. Iyasere Osato, Dr. Christy Atako, Mrs. Ibim Seminitari, Dr. Christian Oboh and Dr. Enyia Akwaggaga, as well as Audu-Ohwavborua.
Audu-Ohwavborua commended the NDDC Chairman, Chiedu Ebie, and Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Chief Samuel Ogbuku, for the initiative, saying “institutional memory was important to understanding the evolution of development interventions in the Niger Delta”. He said Horsfall’s contributions would remain part of the history of Nigeria’s intelligence services, OMPADEC and the evolution of the NDDC, as well as the wider story of development in the Niger Delta.
Key points
- Dr. Emmanuel Audu-Ohwavborua highlights Chief Albert Korubo Horsfall's role in Niger Delta development.
- Horsfall was the pioneer Chairman of OMPADEC, established in 1992.
- The NDDC ceremony honoured Horsfall's legacy and contributions to the region.
