The management of BUA Group has taken the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, to specify the clause or clauses violated by the group in its decision to terminate the port concession agreement with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
Responding to Usman’s claims justifying the abrogation of the concession, BUA questioned her decision to ignore court judgments on the issue and the arbitration process initiated by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
While affirming that Tinubu has further consolidated on the due process rejected by the NPA’s Managing Director (MD), BUA said that the current administration’s inclination to due process has further restricted the kind of arbitrariness that Usman exhibited in her assertions and actions as NPA’s MD.
BUA had alleged that the concession entered into with the NPA was terminated by Usman, alleging her plot to further the business interest of her friend, who competes with BUA Group.
Further noting how the courts reversed Usman’s termination of the concession, and how Buhari constituted a legal team to review the actions and how she further snubbed the review, BUA affirmed that the new management of the NPA reversed her actions in sustaining the sanctity of the contract.
BUA said: “We have taken note of recent public statements made by Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman, the former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), who was sacked from office. In her comments, she accused BUA Group and our Chairman, Abdul Samad Rabiu, of breaching a concession agreement and distorting facts.
“BUA entered into a valid long lease agreement in 2006 with the NPA to rehabilitate and operate Terminal B at Rivers Port in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Long before Ms. Usman’s appointment, BUA had begun formal engagement with the NPA to address outstanding remedial works and infrastructural deficiencies. These discussions were near conclusion when she assumed office.”— Guardian
