TheCable

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has tackled the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the statement issued by the opposition party on the ongoing probe in the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

Last Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari suspended Bala Usman as managing director of NPA and approved the setting up of a panel of inquiry to investigate the management of the NPA.

On Monday, Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, inaugurated an 11-member investigative panel to probe all contracts awarded since 2016 when Usman became managing director.

But in a statement on Monday, the PDP accused Amaechi and Usman of corruption and said they should be suspended and handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for prosecution.

Responding in a statement on Tuesday, John Akpanudoedehe, national secretary of APC caretaker committee, said the PDP “is in no position to pontificate or even point fingers at the APC on the ongoing fight against corruption”.

He said nobody has been indicted, adding that the probe is a routine activity.

“We read the nonsensical statement by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against prominent party leader and the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon.
Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, and the suspended Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA),
Hadiza Bala Usman, in connection with the routine administrative inquiry approved by President Muhammadu Buhari into the activities of the Nigerian
Ports Authority (NPA),” Akpanudoedehe said.

“While inaugurating the panel on Monday to probe the activities of the NPA, the transportation minister was
abundantly clear that no one has been indicted of anything. And the probe is in line with the routine discharge of the duties and functions of the Ministry of Transportation’s supervisory mandate over the NPA.”

Akpanudoedehe said the approval of the probe shows that the president believes in transparency and good governance and has zero tolerance for corruption.

The APC also described, as baseless, the allegation by the PDP that Amaechi’s wife was involved in a controversial contract awarded by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

“Shamelessly, the PDP was quick to mention the spouse of Amaechi, over a phantom story of imaginary money looted from the NDDC, concocted
by one of their own, a known PDP sympathiser,” Akpanudoedehe said.

“It is an irony that the PDP whose public officers’ family members and cronies collectively looted our country with many charged to court for financial crimes and money laundering offences, would, based on fiction, slander the spouse of an APC public official.

“Yes, Nigerians are appalled, but not by the concocted story of looting against Amaechi’s spouse in NDDC, but by the known fact that after many years
of being in control of the NDDC, several PDP government officials, their family members and cronies salted away the enormous funds that accrued to the NDDC that was meant for the
development of the Niger Delta region.”

He added the PDP should “allow us focus on cleaning the daunting mess they left behind in the Niger Delta, like most facets of our country”.