The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded the immediate prosecution of ‘sacked’ Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman, for allegedly misappropriating over N165 billion belonging to the organisation.
It said President Muhammadu Buhari should not just “ease out” the embattled chief executive, but must go ahead to prosecute her over the alleged looting, including revelations from the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF), which it claimed also unearthed the “alleged stealing of unremitted deductions to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) amounting to N3,667,750,470, $148,845,745.04, 4,891,449.50 Euros and £252,682.14 during her watch at the NPA.”
The PDP, in a late statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, charged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to “immediately take in Usman for questioning and prosecution over the alleged fraud, including the reported stealing of N15.18 billion through alleged shady Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects by the NPA.”
It also urged the anti-graft agency to extend its searchlight to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, under whose watch the alleged stealing was perpetrated.
The party stated that for it to take the minister six years (2016 to 2021) to query the Usman for allegedly mismanaging N165 billion unremitted operational surplus raises “public apprehension of an afterthought, which only came after indicting audit documents had already been exposed.”
The PDP said it will continue to stand with Nigerians to closely monitor actions of the Buhari administration and resist attempts by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to “sweep the matter under the carpet in the desperation to shield many of its leaders involved in the reckless looting in the NPA, particularly finances relating to the 2019 elections sleaze funds.”
ALSO yesterday, the EFCC received a petition detailing over N92 billion and millions of money in foreign currencies of public funds squandered by several Federal Government’s agencies, including the country’s foreign missions.
In a petition sent to the agency’s chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa and signed by Olanrewaju Suraju of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre), the commission was asked to identify corrupt officials and punish them.
The group said it expects the probe to engender radical restructuring of the country’s civil service with a view to freeing it from the fetters of graft and ineptitude that diminish administrative efficiency.
The petition was hinged on the AuGF’s yearly report on accounts of the federation in 2016, which indicted Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of misappropriation.
