Hadiza Bala Usman has been suspended as Managing Director/CEO of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
Mohammed Koko, Director of Finance in the organisation has stepped in to replace her in acting capacity.
A Presidentual spokesperson, Malam Garba Shehu confirmed the development in a press statement on Thursday night.
According to Shehu, the President had also approved that the Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman step aside while the investigation is carried out. He said Mr Mohammed Koko would act in that position.
According to him: :The panel is to be headed by the Director, Maritime Services of the Ministry while the Deputy Director, Legal of the same ministry will serve as Secretary.
“Other members of the panel will be appointed by the Minister.”
Further reports from the Presidency said that Hadiza Bala’s suspension was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari consequent upon the recommendation by the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi.
Amaechi was said to have ordered a probe into Hadiza Bala’s administration at the NPA, since 2016 until now.
There were reports of alleged fraud and financial misappropriation around her and her office.
The statement by the Presidency indicated the setting up of an independent probe into her tenure, although a report claimed that a quiet probe ordered by the President had confirmed all the allegations necessitating the formal announcement of her suspension.
This is coming ahead of the expiration of her second tenure in July 2021 when her second term of five years would have begun.
Her suspension would appear to have not only put paid to her hope of tenure renewal but also upended her first term, which she did not finish.
A former Chief of Staff to Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna her home state (2015), Hadiza had been a key figure in the Bring-Back-Our-Girls Movement and was first appointed NPA Managing Director in 2016.
She is also a founding member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
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