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From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
The Unified Nigerian Youths Forum on Tuesday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to name Mohammed Bello-Koko as the new Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA).
The president of the group, Abdulsalam Mohammed Kazeem, noted in a statement that the vacuum created in the country’s leading revenue-generating agency as a result of the ongoing probe of the tenure of the suspended Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman, need to be covered by an experienced individual which Bello-Koko fits.
The leadership of the Unified Nigerian Youths Forum (UNYF) called on President Buhari to approve the appointment of Mr Bello-Koko as the substantive head of the Ports Authority ‘to enable him to complete the progressive and all-inclusive reforms he has started in the organisation.
‘The decision to call on Mr President to confirm Mr Koko as NPA head was taking after an extraordinary emergency congress meeting of the Forum at NAF international conference centre Abuja to x-ray his tenure and the misleading Pandora Papers hullabaloo.
‘The Forum discovered that the industrious and hard-working Bello-Koko declared the said properties in his Code of Conduct Bureau forms which vindicated him, as he resigned from headship/partnership of the British Virgin Island incorporated companies.
‘It is our further findings that he was not a politically exposed person in 2008-2013 when he purchased the alleged assets. He didn’t employ a multilayered murky mechanism to obscure his ownership of foreign property. He declared his two vehicles on the Island. He deserves our collective commendation not condemnation at any rate.
‘The Forum further noted that within the short period after he took over Nigeria Ports Authority headship, our revenue generation rate is on the increase daily. His relationship with staff and management of the agency is now the envy of all and a reference point in Nigeria today.
‘Therefore, we wish to withdraw the earlier erroneous call we made urging the Mr President to sack him. The call was as a result of pressure from some mischievous/ desperate politicians and interest groups who are intimidated by his rising profile and achievements, who are not realists, and assuming If they had paid attention to details, they wouldn’t have led us astray.
‘It is crystal clear that none of the properties he acquired was done while he was in office. His Code of Conduct Forms showed that he disclosed everything they are trying to make the world believe is a hidden secret.’
