The immediate past Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has knocked President Bola Tinubu's Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, for allegedly presenting false narratives in her book titled: 'Stepping on Toes: My Odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority.'
Amaechi criticised Usman while speaking as a special guest at the 2023 TheNiche Annual Lecture themed 'Why We Stride and Slip: Leadership, Nationalism, and the Nigerian Condition', held in Lagos on Thursday, October 26, 2023.
Recall Usman was suspended as the Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2021 over allegations of mismanagement.
An Administrative Panel of Inquiry, headed by Amaechi, later found her guilty of the allegations, which led to her eventual ouster from the NPA.
However, in her book, Usman absolved herself of any wrongdoing during her reign at the NPA. She also alleged that her sacking was orchestrated by the former minister.
Reacting to this, Amaechi said the content of the book is nothing but complete lies.
"The lies were too many. For instance, she claimed she was not invited by the panel. I even came with the memo of the president, where the president endorsed her removal," the former Rivers State Governor said.
"Count one is in the question of the fact that the panel says she is guilty; count two is due to the fact that a Managing Director of NPA with an N2.5m approval limit can approve N2.8b contract with no appropriation," he noted.
The former minister insisted that Usman was guilty of the same crimes she was accusing him of and making concessions for the high and mighty in society.
"Why is that document not published because prominent Nigerians are involved? She gave waivers to prominent Nigerians, which she has no power to give and these are dollars accruable to Nigeria's economy but she was bold enough to write a book or is it a pamphlet and Nigerians are following her, launching the book, so how will Nigeria move forward?
"But let's wait until they bring the original copy because if I give you the photocopy, you will say it is fake. I will show you the original but I won't allow you to read it because you would see the names of those prominent Nigerians that were indicted by the panel. I would rather read the areas that concern her and leave those prominent Nigerians, they didn't look for my trouble," he said.
Amachi also stressed that the former NPA boss had been indicted by the panel and denied that he purposefully engineered her sacking.
"For instance, she claims that she was not indicted by the panel but she was found guilty of all the 10 counts. I even came with a copy of the memo to the President in which the President endorsed her removal.
"We took the President through all the counts, including the fact that a Managing Director of NPA with an N2.5m approval limit can approve an N2.8bn contract. No appropriation, including the fact that even if I were to approve despite the lack of appropriation, you are overpriced by N58m so tell them to refund the difference, having awarded the contract," the former governor added.
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