It's not clear at all that they "voluntarily ceded control of it". The exact chain of events is disputed, but it appears quite possible that Niue never had cont

It's not clear at all that they "voluntarily ceded control of it". The exact chain of events is disputed, but it appears quite possible that Niue never had control of their ccTLD at all -- that it was first delegated to someone outside the Niue government, without that government's approval, and that this error was never corrected.