Action against Intel has no political undertone, NPA MD, Usman, insists
Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman has reiterated for the umpteenth time that the recent spat with oil and gas logistics giant Intel Nigeria Limited partly owned by former Vice – President Atiku Abubakar is not political.
Introducing political angle to the story is “a complete distraction”, Usman said, noting the issue between NPA and Intel over compliance with the Treasury Single Account (TSA) pre-dated the current administration.
NPA had terminated the Pilotage Agency Agreement with Intel which seeks to break the monopoly of Intel in the handling of oil and gas cargoes at the port.
Though the issue between the two agencies has been resolved, speculations were rife that the NPA rose against Atiku to demistify his financial muzzle having ran out of favour with the government.
While featuring on Sam Omatseye’s Platform on TVC monitored by our correspondent, Usman insisted there was nothing political about asking Intel to comply with the TSA, the platform automating all government financial transactions.
She said, “The issue with Intel is attributable to non – compliance with country’s Single Account as you are aware of TSA whereby all agencies of government are required to pay their revenues into this account.
“Nigeria Port Authority had entered into this agreement whereby monies were collected by third parties, that was pre-TSA. So upon introduction of TSA, we asked everyone to comply but Intel was not willing to comply to collection of those revenues through TSA.
“To say it is political is a complete distraction from the core contents of what it is. The issue of compliance with TSA actually started before this administration came in. Letters were written to Intel pre-Buhari administration when we said clearly you need to comply as you are aware the last administration had commenced TSA compliance. It had started it and we proceeded to do it continuously. And I would like to say that we spent a year discussing with Intel, asking them to comply and they refused to comply for over a year.
“So I couldn’t understand how a private company operating in Nigeria would disregard our constitution, disregard our policies and rules and try to distract us by making it political. There is nothing political about asking you to comply, there is nothing political about you doing what is the statutory position in the country you are operating in.
“So I’ll always say that Intel tried to distract us by making it political. Other companies that are complying, are they not operating? So maybe you are the one that are trying to politicise it by always operating outside of the law using your influence.
According to her, operations of NPA have no political considerations.
She added: “We have a level playing field for everybody. The rules apply to everyone. You must comply to what it is the rule even if you are friend of the government as it were, you must comply. You can’t operate outside of the law. I think they realized that because they have apologized and they complied but it needs not get to termination. That is what I mean. People need to be responsible as a corporate entity to comply with the laws of the land.”
