Hadiza Bala Usman: I had no power to solely award contracts as NPA MD - by Aderemi Ojekunle

Hadiza Bala Usman, the suspended managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has denied media reports she solely awarded ports contract during her tenure. Advertisement In a statement signed by her on Sunday, May 9, 2021, Usman described such reports as “irresponsible, mischievous and defamatory”. Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the suspension of Bala Usman as the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and approved the appointment of Mohammed Koko pending the outcome of an investigation into the maritime sector. TheCable had reported an insider detail of how Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, got Buhari’s approval to suspend Bala Usman. Advertisement Bala Usman said the NPA has an executive management team, which always considers and takes business decisions on all assets of the NPA in the best interest of Nigeria. “To claim that I singlehandedly awarded a contract in my capacity as Managing Director, is, therefore, irresponsible, mischievous, and defamatory,” the statement read. “The report also mischievously lumped the now expired service boat contract between the NPA and the Integrated Logistics Services’ (INTELs), which took off in 2007 with a review of a ten-year extension in 2011 to culminate in expiration in August 2020 with the lease under discussion. “The service boat contract expired through the effluxion of time and the Authority initiated a procurement process in which INTELs participated in line with all extant laws.” Explaining her position on the Onne berths 9, 10 and 11, Bala Usman said the NPA offered these berths to INTELs in 2013 without any contractual agreement even though the offer letter required that the company should pay rent to the Authority for the use of the berths. “In 2018, the Authority realised that INTELs had neither been making these payments for five years nor putting the berths to optimal use,” the statement read. “The Authority then wrote INTELs to request for the payment of the arrears of monies that were unpaid and expand the utilisation of the facility. “With the continued under-utilisation of the facility, the fact that there was no contractual agreement with INTELs from the outset and the urgent need to decongest the ports in Lagos, the Authority offered the berths to an internationally renowned container handling company, Messers International Container Terminal Nigerian Limited (ICTNL) for the use of the berths for container cargo discharging. “ICTNL has signed a contract for the lease of the berths with the Authority and has commenced the installation of container handling equipment when INTELS instituted a court action challenging the withdrawal of the offer. That case is still in court! Bala Usman also refuted allegations that she was involved in a “clandestine ploy to shortchange a company” in favour of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote. “This report is false, without any foundation and a figment of some wild imagination of the news platform,” the statement added. “I also note the insinuation of a non-existent monetary transfer between Alhaji Dangote and I during the 2015 elections. As I told People’s Gazette when I was approached about this story, no such transaction occurred. “Having gone through the trouble to give this explanation, I demand that Sahara Reporters publish this rebuttal and give it the same measure of prominence given to the false story, which runs against all known ethics of journalism.”