Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, says he is not aware of the suspension of Hadiza Bala Usman as the managing director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
On May 5, President Muhammadu Buhari approved Usman’s suspension following a recommendation by Amaechi.
After Usman’s suspension, Amaechi inaugurated an 11-member investigative panel to probe NPA over all contracts awarded since 2016 when Usman became its managing director.
Usman was initially accused of failing to remit the operating surplus of NPA to the consolidated revenue fund (CFR) — an allegation she denied.
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But TheCable had exclusively reported that the administrative panel set up by Amaechi will now focus on “insubordination”.
In an interview with Arise TV on Monday, Amaechi denied knowledge of Usman’s suspension, saying she was only asked to “step aside” pending the conclusion of the probe on NPA.
“I am not aware that I suspended Hadiza, I’m not the president. So I don’t have such power. That power rests with the president,” he said.
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“I am not aware that Hadiza was suspended. What happened, I suspect, is that she was asked to step aside to enable investigation to be carried out on NPA, not on her.
“We are investigating NPA. At the conclusion of the investigation, all the reports will be forwarded to the president who would make a determination on the way forward.”
Amaechi added that he is not sure when the panel will conclude its ongoing probe on NPA.
The minister also accused the media of creating “too much noise” on the suspension of the NPA MD.
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“The panel is not headed between the ministry of transport and office of the head of service. The office of the head of service contributed six persons including auditors and accountants, and the ministry of transport just brought five,” he said.
“So it is a panel of 11 that has been instituted to investigate activities of NPA from 2016 till the present day.
“It is NPA that is under investigation. The managing director has just been asked to step aside pending the conclusion of the investigation. And when the investigation is concluded, the president will make a determination and decide what happens next.”
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2 comments
Some.of our leaders are so shameless and semi-literate. What’s the difference between asking a DG to step aside and suspension? Contradicted himself in the last paragraph by accusing the media of “making too much noise in the suspension” of the DG. What a bunch of characters we have in this administration. President barely knows anything and so are his Ministers.
You have said all that have to be said. Rotimi Amaechi to me is a bunch of disgrace and disappointment to the Niger Delta especially and to Nigeria as a whole. He speaks sometimes in a manner that you begin to doubt his knowledge level. The other time, he said what was the big deal in Nigeria losing her sovereignty to China! I just wonder the kind of demon controlling these people. The blunder he made here is minor compared to his past ones.