Contrary to a story making the rounds that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) failed to remit some funds into the Federal Government’s account, the immediate past CEO of NPA, Hadiza Bala-Usman, has described as untrue and fallacious the report, saying it is a product of barren imaginations of some people, who are the promoters of the media report.
Bala-Usman has, therefore, challenged anyone with proofs of the allegation to present them to the public.
“Media reports alleging that the Auditor-General of the Federation have issued some queries regarding monies being owed the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), by Terminal Operators have come to my attention.
“I make bold to say that this report is untrue and a fallacy from the imagination of anyone spreading the falsehood. I also challenge anyone with proofs of this allegation to present them in public.
“The truth is that even if there are monies unremitted into the federal government’s accounts, these monies will remain in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) where all revenues generated by the Authority domicile,” she said in a well-worded statement, a copy of which was given to Persecondnews.
In May 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the suspension of Bala-Usman as the Managing Director/CEO of NPA following a recommendation by Mr Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister of Transportation, who had secured a “midnight approval’’ of the President racking up some wild and unproven allegations.
An Administrative Panel of Inquiry was set up to investigate the management of the NPA while she was on indefinite suspension and to date, she has not been invited to clear herself before the panel.
An Acting MD, Mr Mohammed Bello-Koko, has since been appointed to take charge.
Bala-Usman said her initial reaction was to ignore it as it was the duty of the current management of NPA to react appropriately and put the records straight.
According to her, she became worried following the reticence and close-mouthedness of the management as the wild allegation was targeted at her.
“Ordinarily, the NPA should clear the air about these allegations, and for this reason, I have refused to make any comments since the news broke.
“However, it is becoming more apparent that tarnishing my image is the primary mission of promoters of the story.
“On Tuesday morning, for instance, several people sent me a social media post with the title: ‘NPA Audit indicts Hadiza Bala Usman for not remitting N40b, $921.61m and £289.931.82 to federal government accounts’,’’ Persecondnews quotes from the statement.
“In addition, the Authority will have explanations for any audit queries that may arise, whenever they do.”
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