Former BBOG campaigner and Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority, Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman

BY OUR REPORTERS

Former Bring Back Our Girls BBOG campaignerand Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA, Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman has commenced a steady but gradual scheme aimed at ensuring that NPA is taken over by people from one section of the country, Business and Transport Online can authoritatively report.

These current illegal recruitments are coming less than one year after the MD was enmeshed in a multi-million illicit furniture contract scandal, which she executed without the approval of the governing board of the authority.

Competent sources close to the authority disclosed that the MD has unilaterally employed more than 1,500 members of staff into the organisation from only one region of the country between January and December 2019 alone, which contravenes the country’s Federal Character Policy.

These illegal recruitments, which cut across different strategic sections of authority ranging from marine, engineering, procurement, audit and finance also cut across different cadres, especially middle and top manpower of the authority.

It was gathered that part of the plot is to ensure that in the next 15-20 years, all the strategic departments of the agency are headed and dominated by people from only one section and one religion in the country.

Investigations also show that the security department and the Fire Service section of the organisation were not spared in these illicit employments, as critical sections of the two segments are being skewed to be taken over also.

It was further gathered that the recruitment processes in terms of interviews and others for these new intakes may not have been done within the agency as the new recruits into the mainstream of the authority, the fire service and security departments are sighted on their resumption days.

The sources said that the MD has vowed to employ more before she leaves office to ensure that in the next 20 years or more, all the General Managers, Assistant General Managers and other top cadre staffers are from one religion and one region of the country, a feat she would want to be remembered for.

Other sources have however warned that these illegal recruitment exercises may continue or even worsen in the future if nothing urgent was done to check it. They also recommend a review of all recruitments into the agency, including the Fire Service and Security units especially in the last three years since the current MD took over reins of the NPA.

The General Manager of the authority in charge of Corporate and Strategic Communications Unit, Engr. Jatto Adams, when contacted, said he was not aware of such developments.