All things being equal, indications have emerged that the suspended Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman, might be on her way back to the port agency, after eight months, following a clean bill of health given her by the probe panel instituted by the Transportation Minister, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi.
Presidency sources confided in TW NG that the committee set up to probe the suspended MD found nothing against her, warranting a recommendation to President Muhammadu Buhari to reinstate her with uthmost good faith.
This is even as the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, who recommended her suspension has been fighting hard to stop her reinstatement.
The source said, “Buhari is to reinstate Hadiza of NPA barring any last minute changes. The Committee probing her found nothing against her and Amaechi has been fighting hard to ensure she is not reinstated.”
The embattled NPA Boss was suspended in May last year by President Muhammadu Buhari, following a request by Amaechi to raise an Administrative Panel of Inquiry to investigate the Management of the NPA.
Amaechi had raised the alarm through a letter to the President that she failed to remit the sum of N165.32bn between 2016 when she assumed office and time of her removal.
Usman was suspended as part of moves to allow independent audit of the accounts and remittance of the agency.
According to details of a letter sent to Buhari by Amaechi, the yearly remittance of operating surpluses by the NPA from 2016 to 2020 was “far short of the amount due for actual remittance.”
In the letter, dated March 4, 2021, Amaechi had claimed that within the stipulated years, the NPA recorded an outstanding unremitted balance of N165.32bn and suggested that the financial account of the NPA be investigated and audited.
Following the Minister’s letter, an 11-member committee was set up on May 11 last year to investigate the activities of the Nigerian Ports Authority.
Amaechi, while inaugurating the committee in Abuja, charged the members to be diligent and ensure they do a thorough job.
The committee’s terms of reference, he said, include examining and investigating the administrative policies and strategies adopted by NPA’s Managing Director, Hadiza Usman, and confirm compliance with extant laws and rules from 2016 till date.
Other terms of reference of the panel are to ”Examine and investigate issues leading to the termination of other contracts of NPA and confirm compliance with the terms of the respective contracts, court ruling and presidential directives.
“Examine and investigate compliance with communication channel, as obtained in the public service.
“Examine and investigate the procurement of contracts from 2016 to date.
“Come up with suggestions and advice that would strengthen the operations of NPA and forestall such occurrences in future.
“And any other matter that may be necessary in the course of the assignment.”
But in the end of it all, it appeared that Usman had done nothing to warrant her outright removal./ Additional reports from TW NG/SHARE THIS