The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mohammad Bello-Koko, has accused some people in unknown Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) of blackmailing him.

Bello-Koko said some people in the past two years, in a desperate bid to defame and exhort him, resulted to blackmail him, “using the instrumentality of a section of online media to push through their mischief and blackmail.”

The NPA boss noted that the people, after they failed in their “desperation to dent or hurt my integrity”, resorted to a cruel campaign of calumny against him and his family.

He said this via a statement he personally issued on Saturday.

Bello-Koko added: “Because they are faceless, I don’t have the opportunity to seek redress in court on the grounds of their rehashed and rehearsed lies.

“I need to reiterate that for all of my years as a banker and a public officer up till today, I have never been indicted or convicted by any court. And this fact is in the public domain.

“I’m also certain that my integrity as well as dedication and fidelity to the rules of public administration must have influenced the decision by the Federal Government of Nigeria to promote me from the rank of Executive Director (Finance and Administration) to Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Ports Authority.

“Resorting to writing to the UK Government, seeking visa cancellation and forfeiture of assets belonging to my wife and I, is not only malicious but also cruel and wicked. I have yet to understand why these evil machinations would be orchestrated against me. Is the offence that I committed my acceptance and readiness to serve my country to the best of my ability?

“This latest attack, in the series of sponsored blackmails targeted at me, which began in 2021 immediately I was elevated from the position of Executive Director of Finance and Administration to the position of Managing Director of the NPA is intended to damage my reputation.

“Is there no limit to what vested interests can do in their desperate pursuit of power and influence?

“In deceit, they have disingenuously claimed in the sponsored report that UK/Ireland Investigators were the ones that had written to the UK government after they had purportedly unearthed alleged criminal acts against me, bordering on money laundering activities, fraud, forgery, and tax evasion, which are all baseless figments of their malicious intent.

”Whereas, particulars cited in the report were the regurgitated allegations that they had sponsored and which had been doing the rounds in the media from the outset, this latest attempt is as spurious as their first attempt ever.

“Their claim that UK/Ireland Investigators, and not Metropolitan Police or Scotland Yard, are investigating me falls flat on its face and gives out the sponsors of the report- which is a piece of cheap blackmail-as desperate hustlers who are not civil and neither working in the interest of the society.

“It is unfortunate that some online news media have lent their platforms to these desperadoes to ply their odious trade. However, I challenge the conduit pipes of this malice to go ahead and mention the names and true identities of the CSOs and the investigators.

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“If the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had been on the matter as indicated in the report, it is then unfair to suggest or claim that some questionable UK/Ireland Investigators are now pushing for exclusion order to ban me from ever entering the United Kingdom. One expects that there should be inter-agency collaboration in line with some bilateral or mutual agreements.

“All the supposed assertions and innuendos in the report are nothing but spurious and malicious concoctions intended to cause a predetermined damage.”

He stated that the NPA under his leadership was not aware of any secret foreign accounts, adding that he could not have been a beneficiary of something that he was not aware of “and which I would like to emphasize is non–existent to the best of my knowledge.”

The NPA MD listed his achievements to include “Completion of the construction of 6,000 metric tonnes Bitumen Tank in Rivers Port Complex to improve the company’s bitumen storage capacity which will ease their operations and have impact on the infrastructure development of the South-South.

“Provision of 24 motorcycles deployed in aid of effective monitoring of Truck E-Call Up operation at Apapa/TCIPC/Ijora axis to ease free flow of traffic.

“Enforcement of full compliance of trucks to E-Call Up regime and Minimum Safety Standard resulting in significant reduction in the traffic gridlock along the main Port corridor and the internal access roads through enforcements, proper batching, continuous access control mechanisms and movement of cargo via barge operations.

“Licensing of additional truck parks to increase capacity of truck parks servicing the Lagos Ports.

“To improve revenue collection, we have Tightened collection mechanisms and plugged revenue leakages that resulted in the unprecedented generation of the sum of 286bn and the remittance of 103bn as of November 2022 to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the federation.

“Licensing of 10 Export Processing Terminals to facilitate exports at Nigerian Sea Ports. Four (4) of these terminals are already fully operational.

“The Harbours department of Onne and Calabar ports have secured the International Standard Organization (ISO) certification
There’s reduction in ship waiting time and cargo dwell time and increase in cargo traffic in the eastern ports,” Bello-Koko stated.

He further reiterated his commitment to supporting all well-meaning and decent citizens to “tell my traducers to use their energy for more meaningful endeavor than to engage in maliciousness of their campaign of intimidation, blackmail, and vendetta.”

“My job at the NPA is not personal. It is national service, to which I had resolved from the outset to give my best shot,” the NPA boss added.

The Star