Presidency probes suspended NPA MD, Hadiza Bala-Usman

The Presidency has announced the suspension of Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala-Usman.

She is also to face an administrative panel of inquiry set up by the Federal Ministry of Transportation to probe the NPA management under her watch.

Executive Director of Finance at the NPA, Mohammed Koko, has been asked to take over while “investigation is carried out.”

A statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Malam Garba Shehu, said President Muhammadu Buhari had approved Bala-Usman’s suspension and the appointment of Koko as acting MD of the NPA.

The suspension, Shehu said, followed a recommendation by the Minister of Transportation, Rt Hon Rotimi Amaechi, to set up an administrative panel of inquiry to investigate the management of the NPA.

This is coming about four months after the Presidency announced Bala-Usman’s reappointment for another five years with effect from March 1, 2021.

The panel is to be headed by the Director of Maritime Services in the ministry while the Deputy Director of Legal in the same ministry will serve as secretary.

Other members of the panel will be appointed by the minister.

Bala Usman was said to be at loggerheads  with Amaechi for refusing to take directives from him.

Amaechi had allegedly left the NPA under the supervision of the Minister of State for Transportation, Ms Gbemisola Saraki.

In 2014, Bala-Usman co-founded the Bring Back Our Girls campaign to advocate the rescue of abducted Chibok schoolgirls.

She is also a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The NPA recently launched Etó, an electronic truck call-up system, aimed at tackling the perennial logjam caused by articulated trucks within the Apapa ports corridor.

But Bala-Usman told journalists that she was aware of her suspension since she was yet to receive any formal communication to that effect.

Her replacement, Bello-Koko, was born on the 25th March 1969 in Koko-Besse Local Government area of Kebbi State.