House of Reps dismiss petition against NPA MD over N178b bad debt

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions on Wednesday dismissed a petition against the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mohammed Bello-Koko, on N178 billion bad debt in the audited financial statement of the Authority in 2019.

A group under the auspices of the Forum of Non-Governmental Organisations in Nigeria had petitioned the House, The Eagle Online reports. The petition was against the NPA and Bello-Koko.

However, at the resumption of the hearing on Wednesday, the group failed to appear before the committee to defend the allegation raised.

Angered by the failure of the petitioner to appear before the Committee, its Chairman, Mike Etaba, dismissed the petition for lack of merit, saying this is the sixth time that the petitioner will fail to appear before the committee to defend the petition.

Etaba said: “This is the sixth time and the petitioner has not been in this place. The case is hereby dismissed.”

The petitioner had requested that the management of NPA and Bello-Koko be invited to address the growth of doubtful debt from N135 billion in 2018 to N173 billion.

The petition in part reads: “Our attention has been brought to the 2019 audited financial statement  of Nigeria Port Authority ( NPA) with special reference to Trade Accounts Receivable and the huge provision made for bad and doubt debts.

“Whilst we note that the position in 2019 would significantly changed by now, the poor quality of NPA’s trade receivable account is alarming and require urgent attention.”