Bala Usman refutes allegation of shoddy deal with Dangote
. We are not affiliated to Dangote, says ICTSI
By Abimbola Abdullahi
The embattled Hadiza Bala Usman has refuted the report by an online platform accusing her of involving in a clandestine ploy to shortchange a company in favour of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.
Bala Usman, in a rejoinder made available to SlyNews, said the “report is false, without any foundation and a figment of some wild imagination of the news platform”.
She explained: “To start with, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has an executive management team, which always considers and takes business decisions on all assets of the Authority in the best interest of Nigeria. To claim that I single handedly awarded a contract in my capacity as managing director, is therefore, irresponsible, mischievous, and defamatory”.
Meanwhile, the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) said it is a Philippine publicly listed independent company engaged in the operations of 33 ports on six continents, and “it is not owned or in any way affiliated with the Dangote group of companies” it stated in a memo signed by Senior Vice President, Hans-Ole Madsen.
The report according to Baa Usman, also mischievously lumped the now expired service boat contract between the NPA and the Integrated Logistics Services’ (INTELs), which took off in 2007 with a review of a ten-year extension in 2011 to culminate in an expiration in August 2020 with the lease under discussion.
She explained that the service boat contract expired through the effluxion of time and the Authority initiated a procurement process in which INTELs participated in line with all extant laws.
“Concerning Onne berths 9, 10 and 11, which the report alleged was “clandestinely” taken from INTELs. The true position is that: “The Authority offered these berths to INTELs in 2013 without any contractual agreement even though the offer letter required that the company should pay rent to the Authority for the use of the berths.
“In 2018, the Authority realised that INTELs had neither been making these payments for five years nor putting the berths to optimal use.
“The Authority then wrote INTELs to request for the payment of the arrears of monies that were unpaid and expand the utilisation of the facility.
“With the continued under-utilisation of the facility, the fact that there was no contractual agreement with INTELs from the outset and the urgent need to decongest the ports in Lagos, the Authority offered the berths to an internationally renowned container handling company, Messers International Container Terminal Nigerian Limited (ICTNL) for the use of the berths for container cargo discharging.
“ICTNL has signed a contract for the lease of the berths with the Authority and has commenced the installation of container handling equipment when INTELS instituted a court action challenging the withdrawal of the offer. That case is still in court!
“And according to reports in the media, ICTNL has refuted allegations that it has connections with Alhaji Aliko Dangote. This exposes another disgraceful fabrication by Sahara Reporters.
“I also note the insinuation of a non-existent monetary transfer between Alhaji Dangote and I during the 2015 elections. As I told People’s Gazette when I was approached about this story, no such transaction occurred.
“Having gone through the trouble to give this explanation, I demand that Sahara Reporters publish this rebuttal and give it the same measure of prominence given to the false story, which runs against all known ethics of journalism'” she stated.
