The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has debunked insinuations that the recent termination of its boats pilotage monitoring and supervision agreement with Oil and Gas Logistics Firm, Intels Nigeria Limited.
Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman who said this in an interview recently in Lagos, however alleged that, INTELS is depriving the federal government of revenue.
According her, INTELS owes the federal government about $146million. The sum was the outstanding service boat revenue generated from November, 2017 to October, 2018, she explained.
She urged Nigerians to desist from reading meanings into every decision that is taken by the government, even as she said that INTELS doesn’t respect the rule of the law.
NPA, in a March 29, 2019 letter, terminated its boats pilotage monitoring and supervision agreement with Intels based on Article 8 (C) of its February 11, 2011 agreement with Intels.
“There is nothing political about the termination of INTELS, we terminated in March after the elections that was when we terminated and also they are owing the Nigerian government $146million unremitted”, she said on a radio programme monitored by our correspondent.
Usman however maintained that there is nothing wrong about terminating the contract of a company that failed to remit to the federal government.
“You cannot have a company that does not respect the rule of law and does not adhere to contract obligation and once you start implementing objectives, people will start complaining. There is nothing political about terminating a contract that refused to remit money to the government” she said.
Also speaking on why Lagos ports are over-patronised, leading to congestion, while ‘eastern’ ports have little or no patrongae, she explained that the importer has the right to choose his/her port of destination and not the NPA.
“On the issue of eastern ports; as you are aware the destination of cargo is the choice of the importer, people decide where they want their cargoes to go to, NPA cannot force you to use a different port”, she explained.
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