The Senate on Wednesday mandated its Committee on Marine Transport to look into a case of alleged non-remittance of N177 billion by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
The decision of the Senate followed a point of order by Senator Mohammed Hassan (PDP, Yobe) who accused NPA of failing to explain the said non-remittance after despite approaches made to the management of the Authority.
“NPA recorded a gross revenue of N303 billion. Meanwhile, its expenditure for last year was N125 billion. Therefore, there was N177 billion operating surplus that was recorded. Not a single dime was reported to have been remitted either to the consolidated revenue fund or to the general reserve fund. We raised this with the management of NPA. Till today, six months later, we have not heard from,” Hassan disclosed.
He added: “The question is, where is this N177 billion? It has not been reported, we have not heard from them seven months after.”
In his contribution, Senator Bala Na’Allah (APC, Kebbi) called for caution in determining the figures involved as there is a difference between perceived income and accrued income.
Also, speaking the Chairman of Marine Transport, Ahmed Yerima said Senator Hassan had never brought up the issue at Committee level before taking a dig at his colleague saying, “Maybe because he (Hassan) has not been attending Committee meetings”.
The Committee on Marine Transport is expected to query the NPA over the matter and report back within three legislative days.