Nigerian Ports Stakeholders Petition EFCC, Police IG Over Missing N20billion Under Suspended MD, Hadiza Usman
They urged the agencies to carry out a detailed investigation of the NPA in their petition which they copied to the office of the President, among others.
by Saharareporters, New York
May 10, 2021
Some stakeholders in the Nigerian ports have petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, to investigate the suspended Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala-Usman over the alleged disappearance of over N20 billion under her watch.
In a petition signed by the stakeholders, Comrades Olayiwole Oke, Charles Dike and Musa Yola, and obtained by SaharaReporters, the stakeholders noted that a “mind-boggling N20 billion of NPA’s financial transactions between 2016 and 2018 could not be traced, documented, or explained.”
Amaechi asks panel to probe all contracts awarded by NPA under Hadiza
Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, on Monday inaugurated an 11-member investigative panel to probe the Nigerian Ports Authority (NP.
Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, on
Monday inaugurated an 11-member investigative panel to probe the Nigerian Ports
Authority (NPA) over all contracts awarded since 2016 when Hadiza Bala Usman
became managing director.
On Thursday, President
Muhammadu Buhari suspended Bala Usman as managing director of NPA and approved
the setting up of a panel of inquiry based on Amaechi’s recommendation.
Denying the allegation of
non- remittance, Bala Usman insisted that the purported failure of the NPA to
Suspended Nigeria Ports Authority Manager, Hadiza Bala, was involved in a clandestine ploy to shortchange a company in favour of Africa’s richest, Aliko Dangote, documents obtained have revealed.
Last year, some coastline terminals formerly operated by Integrated Logistics Services’ (INTELs) in Onne ports complex, Rivers state, were confiscated and subsequently awarded to Dangote through a proxy company, International Container Terminal Services (ICTS) Nigeria limited.
Onne Port Complex is the one of the largest Oil and Gas Free Zone in Africa, where major industry players from the exploration up to the completion phases operate.
The complex has two major terminals namely the Federal Ocean Terminal (FOT) and Federal Lighter Terminal (FLT).
Amid disputation of impropriety, Hadiza Bala Usman was on Wednesday told to step aside as the Managing Director of the Nigeria Port Authority, a post she had held since 2016.
Usman, who has a stint in the public service, had occupied key positions in government including being a senior officer at the Bureau of Public Enterprises and a chief of staff to the incumbent Governor of Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai in 2015. This made her familiar with the power blocs in the political sphere. The fact that she is a Fulani woman from Katsina, the home-state of President Muhammadu Buhari, who has a track record of shielding his loyalists, also dazed on-lookers.