Sack Amaechi, Bala-Usman over non-remittance of N165bn NPA funds, PDP tells Buhari

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to terminate the appointments of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, as well as the suspended Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman, over allegations of non-remittance of N165 billion by the management of NPA.

In a statement issued by the PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Monday, the opposition party said this was necessary in order to allow fair investigations into the matter.

Ologbondiyan lamented that the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) have become the All Progressives Congress (APC) cash cows in the past six years.

“The foul stench of corruption oozing out of the NPA, NDDC and other agencies of govern­ment in the last six years has shown that our MDAs have become the cash cows and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) of greedy leaders of the All Progressives Con­gress (APC) and their cronies in government in their unbri­dled looting of our patrimony under President Muhamma­du Buhari’s watch.

“Our party asserts that the fact that it took the minister a clear six years (2016 to 2021) to query the NPA Managing Director over N165 billion unremitted operating sur­plus of the agency, which is under his purview, is suspect and raises public belief that he (Amaechi) only acted ap­parently to shield himself after indicting audit docu­ments had already been ex­posed.

“This is in addition to reports from the Office of Auditor General which also unearthed the looting of unremitted deduction to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) amounting to N3,667,750,470, $148,845,745.04, Euro 4,891,449.50 and £252,682.14 under the sus­pended NPA Managing Di­rector and Amaechi’s minis­terial supervision.

“The audit report also ex­posed another N15.18 billion allegedly siphoned through shady corporate social re­sponsibility (CSR) projects by the NPA, an agency un­der Amaechi’s ministerial purview.

“The PDP, therefore, re­jected the obvious attempt at a cover-up in the recourse to an administrative panel of enquiry recommended by the transport minister to in­vestigate the NPA fraud, add­ing that the minister also has some questions to answer.

“Our party insists that both the minister and the NPA Managing Director should be handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for investigation and possi­ble prosecution,” the party said.