NPA made N162bn, remitted N2bn – Oshiomhole

Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole

The Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, on Tuesday said that the Nigerian Ports Authority only remitted N2bn out of a total sum of N162bn it generated in a year.

He said that those who presided over the affairs of the NPA spent N160bn out of the total amount the agency generated.

Oshiomhole, who said this at the National Delegates’ Conference of the National Union of Roads Transport Workers in Abuja , said that the figures he quoted were from an official report.

The governor called on the labour movement to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-graft war.

He also advised the members of the National Peace Committee to give the expected attention to the place of justice in the quest for lasting peace.

He noted that any peace that was not backed by justice would not last.

He said, “So, I want to propose to the President of the NLC that you should advise the members of the National Peace Committee to include justice, national justice at the peace committee because peace is a product of justice.

“So, for us to have peace, there must be justice otherwise we are going to have the peace of the graveyard and there can be no justice if one person can pocket $6bn.

“Last week, someone told us and this was an official report that in one federal parastatal, the NPA, they admitted to collecting N162bn in one year. They spent N160bn out of that and remitted N2bn to the Federal Government. Is that justice? Can someone plead in defence of this kind of abuse?”

The President of the NLC, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, who also spoke at the event, promised to support the President’s crusade against corruption.

Wabba said, “We are therefore saddened by the news making the rounds that the peace committee recently visited President Buhari to persuade him against bringing to book those involved in the scandalous theft, which we now understand runs into several trillions of naira.

“We call on the eminent members of this committee not to diminish their standing in the eyes of the Nigerian public by trying to stand in the way or better still, act as an obstacle to the retrieval of our commonwealth by these erstwhile public officers, who have plainly betrayed the trust of the Nigerian people.”

PUNCH