PDP Demands Immediate Sack of Ameachi, Hadiza Bala-Usman

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday demanded for the immediate sack and prosecution of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and the suspended Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala-Usman.

The call by the opposition party for a new approach to the crisis at the NPA came hours after Amaechi inaugurated the administrative panel he set up to probe Hadiza Bala-Usman.

The call by the opposition party for a new approach to the crisis at the NPA came hours after Amaechi inaugurated the administrative panel he set up to probe Hadiza Bala-Usman.

Some analysts were of the opinion that an administrative will amount to a waste of time, insisting that even the composition leaves much to be desired.

The minority caucus in the House of Representatives agreed with this observation, saying the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) must do its work of unravelling financial malfeasance in government instead of allowing the political class to reduce a serious financial misconduct to the normal ritual of setting up a committee that will not lead to anywhere.

The PDP in a statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the alleged looting of over N165 billion at the NPA must be thoroughly investigated by the EFCC which is saddled with such responsibility.

“The party also asks the transport minister to come clean on his reported connection in the alleged involvement of his wife, Mrs Edith Amaechi in the exposed N48 billion contract scam currently rocking the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

“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 the alleged looting of 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 shied 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 PDP said.

On its part, the Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives called for the involvement of the Economic and other Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the investigation process.

In a statement signed by the House Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, on Monday, the lawmakers insisted that a huge economic crime against the nation should not be left to an administrative panel of inquiry, but committed to an anti-graft agency like the EFCC for an independent investigation.

The lawmakers stated that they were concerned that the alleged NPA looting was committed to an administrative panel, saying that political manipulations and partisan influences had taken precedence over what should have been a system-wide investigation into a monumental fraud.

“Our caucus holds that the mere suspension of the indicted Managing Director of the NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, and the resort to an administrative panel of inquiry even after the report by the Supervising Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, exposed an unremitted and possibly diverted operating surplus of N165 billion, amounts to romancing and perfuming corruption by the APC-led Federal Government.

“The minority caucus also believes that the recourse to an administrative instead of a full-scale criminal investigation can only serve as a decoy to shield some other APC government officials involved in the looting spree at NPA and other affiliated agencies in the transport sector.”

The caucus said as representatives of the people of Nigeria, they were worried about the alleged monumental lootings going on at a time terrorists, bandits, unknown gunmen, and criminal militias were wreaking havoc across the length and breadth of the country and life has consequently become the cheapest article in the country.

“We imagine that such resources if channeled to the security sector and well managed would have made a world of difference in addressing the problem of insecurity in the country.

“It is a shame that a party that came to power with the promise to fight corruption, build the economy, and fight insecurity has ended up destroying whatever gains that were made before it came to power,” the caucus said.