Prosecute Amaechi, Usman over ‘mismanaged’ N165bn NPA fund, PDP tells Buhari

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate, prosecute and sack the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and the suspended Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman, over alleged mismanagement of over N165bn in the agency.

PDP also alleged that the wife of the Minister of Transportation, Mrs. Edith Amaechi is involved in a N48 billion contract scam in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan in the statement said, “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.

“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,”

According to the statement, 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, demand 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.