Despite being on suspension for the past eight months as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2021, suspended Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala-Usman, informally met with the President on Friday.
Bala-Usman might have met with President Buhari previously behind closed-door and off the cameras but this Friday’s meeting was the first time the duo will be seen together in public since the suspension was pronounced.
Bala-Usman was suspended in May 2021 by the federal government as part of moves to “allow an independent audit of the accounts and remittances of the agency” under her watch.
She was accused of breaches contravening government’s financial regulations regarding under-remittances by the NPA under her watch.
In her place, Mohammed Bello Koko was appointed to head the agency in an acting capacity since then.
Although, the panel set up by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, to investigate alleged infractions by the suspended Managing Director of the NPA, is yet to submit its findings, a development suggesting that Bala-Usman may not return to her seat.
But during the President’s courtesy visit to the Emir of Zazzau, HRH Ahmed Nuhu Bamalli, in Zaria, Kaduna State as part of his two-day working visit to the State this Friday, the suspended MD was seen having a chat with the President in one of the photographs sent out by Aso Rock media handlers.
Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, and his deputy, Hadiza Balarabe, were also seen in the photograph standing close to the Bala-Usman and President Buhari.
