attempting to do an ndc stats fails with and error message in syslog
saying ndc unable to open named.stats file.

doing the command ndc dumbdb results in it pretending to work but not
creating the named_dump.db file. Even run as root this fails.
If I had my suspicions it may turn out to be a permissions problem
with user named in /var/named.

The only work around I can suggest is (for me) to revert back to
8.2.2P5-1. There the ndc commands work. Or compile from source,
yadda, yadda you know the drill.

This also fails in Rawhide Bind version 8.2.2P5-9 BTW.

Regards,
Henri