Former managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman has stated that she didn’t stop pushing for rescue of Chibok girls after being appointed as head of the federal agency.
Usman who was one of the conveners of the #BringBackOurGirls movement which gained grounds after the abduction of 276 schoolgirls from the Chibok town of Borno state by Boko Haram insurgents in 2014, had taken to her social media page weeks ago to decry the country’s security situation under President Muhammadu Buhari during the commemoration of the eighth year of the abduction.
Reacting to the controversy that trailed the post, Usman claimed that she remained committed to the quest for the rescue of the Chibok girls as NPA MD and also attended several meetings with Buhari wearing her #BringBackOurGirls badge.
She said in a statement;
“If I posted that tweet about the country’s security situation just a few weeks after the renewal of my appointment as Managing Director of the NPA in 2021, how then can anyone accuse me of just coming to speak up now? Or is it just another targeted attack on my person, sponsored by desperate people who have tried and failed to tarnish my image in the last one year. Because just a mere check on my Twitter handle would have revealed the truth, but they decided to proceed with promoting falsehood.
“It is such that my official picture at the NPA had my BBOG badge. I attended several meetings with the President wearing my badge. I spoke about the Chibok girls and other Nigerians in captivity at every opportunity I had, including with other colleagues in government and during media interviews.”
Hadiza Bala Usman was appointed as the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in July 2016, but was suspended from the role in 2021.
