Grow Up And Stop Lying, Ex-NPA MD Knocks Amaechi

Former Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman, has fired back at ex-Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi.
Speaking at the annual lecture organised by The Niche, an online publication, Amaechi accused Bala Usman of documenting false narrative in her book titled: “Stepping on Toes: My Odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority.”
In the book, she chronicled her emergence and struggles while she served as Managing Director of NPA.
Amaechi said he had been refraining from responding to the claims in her book, stating the lies were just too many.
He claimed that as Managing Director of NPA with N2.5 million approval limit, she approved a contract of N2.4 billion.
But in a statement she personally signed on Saturday, Bala Usman asked Amaechi to “please, grow up and stop all these lies”.
She said she took time to respond to the allegations levelled against her in the book, wondering why Amaechi was after her.
“Recent newspaper reports of false claims attributed to the eternally petty ex-Minister of Transportation, His Excellency Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, about me did not come to me as a surprise.
“In his over two decades in public office, Nigerians must be used to the fluidity with which he tells lies, manipulates facts, and talks out of turn. Here is someone who once brazenly told Nigerians that he doesn’t like money, even when his public conduct contradicts this assertion. That must be the most fantastic lie that any public official, living or dead, has ever told Nigerians and so, nothing he says should astonish us.
“Aside from exaggerations, manipulation of the truth and outright lies which he threw at his audience on Thursday, the former Minister said nothing that I did not already reveal in my memoirs: Stepping on Toes: My Odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority.
“The book has been on sale since April 2023, but has he even read it to understand that I didn’t hide anything from Nigerians about the events surrounding my “stepping aside,” and eventual exit as Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority.”
The presidential aide went down memory lane to explain how she addressed the issues he raised one after the other.
Countering Amaechi, Bala Usman said she did not know the grounds over which she was allegedly indicted.