Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has posited that he is not privy about the suspension of Hadiza Bala Usman as the managing director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

Amaechi was engaged in an interview with Arise TV where he denied having any knowledge of Usman’s suspension, as he explained that she was only asked to “step aside” pending the conclusion of the probe on NPA.

In his words: “I am not aware that I suspended Hadiza, I’m not the president. So I don’t have such power. That power rests with the president, I am not aware that Hadiza was suspended. What happened, I suspect, is that she was asked to step aside to enable investigation to be carried out on NPA, not on her.

“We are investigating NPA. At the conclusion of the investigation, all the reports will be forwarded to the president who would make a determination on the way forward.”

“The panel is not headed between the ministry of transport and office of the head of service. The office of the head of service contributed six persons including auditors and accountants, and the ministry of transport just brought five,” he said.

“So it is a panel of 11 that has been instituted to investigate activities of NPA from 2016 till the present day.

“It is NPA that is under investigation. The managing director has just been asked to step aside pending the conclusion of the investigation. And when the investigation is concluded, the president will make a determination and decide what happens next.”