ABUJA—Senators were, yesterday, divided over the alleged non-remittance of N177 billion operational surplus made by Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, into the consolidated federation account.
The disagreement came up when a member of the Senate Committee on Marine Transport, which oversees NPA’s operations, Senator Mohammed Hassan (PDP Yobe South), drew the attention of the Senate to it
Senator Hassan, who raised a point of Order, citing Orders 42 and 52, submitted that against the spirit and provisions of the 1999 Constitution and extant laws of NPA, the agency kept to itself N177 billion operational surplus it made from accruing revenues in the 2017 fiscal year, without remitting it into the federation account.
According to him, the committee discovered that the agency, in its budget defence of the performance of the 2017 budget in April, got N303 billion as total operational revenue, out of which N125 billion was taken by it as operational cost as permitted by extant laws, but refused to remit the balance of N177 billion realised as surplus into the federation account .
He said: “This to me, and by extension the Senate, should not be condoned because the committee discovered this seven months ago and ordered the agency to do the needful, which it has not done up till now.”
