Former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman and BUA Group have locked horns over the termination of a Rivers port concession deal.
The dispute started following an article by Abdul Samad Rabiu, the chairman of BUA Group, titled ‘Two years of President Tinubu: A business perspective’.
Rabiu, in the piece, claimed the NPA, under Usman’s leadership, abruptly revoked his company’s concession without prior notice.
He also alleged that the action was taken to favour associates of Usman, who is now President Bola Tinubu’s special adviser on policy coordination.
In response, Usman described Rabiu’s account as “barefaced lies” aimed at misleading the public and shifting the blame for his company’s contractual failures.
But in a counter-statement dated May 31, the BUA Group restated its allegations, accusing Usman of acting unilaterally, flouting a court order, and disregarding the arbitration clause in the concession agreement.
The company said it would have ignored the former NPA boss but is compelled to respond due to the “distortions” in her response.
“Long before Ms. Usman’s appointment, BUA had begun formal engagement with the NPA to address outstanding remedial works and infrastructural deficiencies,” the statement reads.
“These discussions were near conclusion when she assumed office. Rather than build on that process, Ms. Usman ignored BUA’s requests and obligations under the agreement. In 2016, BUA wrote to the NPA under Article 8.4 of the lease, mandating concessionaires to report environmental and safety concerns and to seek approval for remedial works.
“Rather than act constructively, Ms. Usman used that letter as a pretext to issue a termination notice and summarily shut down the terminal, without providing any prior warning, consultation, or invoking the dispute resolution clause.”
BUA Group alleged that the NPA, under Usman, failed to meet its own obligations — including handing over critical portions of the port, removing derelict iron ore, dredging or repairing quay walls, and providing mandatory security.
The company accused Usman of violating a federal high court injunction granted in its favour after the termination notice was issued, and also of ignoring the arbitration process provided in the lease.
“Despite this, Ms. Usman, against the advice of her agency, unilaterally decommissioned the berths, thereby violating both the agreement and a court injunction,” BUA said.
“To be clear, the concession agreement granted her no such power to decommission. If she believes otherwise, we invite her to publicly cite the specific clause that authorizes this action.”
BUA also said it was allowed back to the terminal briefly after providing guarantees requested by the NPA, but noted that operations were shut down again three weeks later at Usman’s directive.
The company described her actions as motivated by “personal animosity and abuse of office”.
According to the statement, the shutdown led to over $10 million in estimated losses.
BUA said Usman’s claim that former President Muhammadu Buhari was “misinformed” when he reversed her actions is “false, disrespectful, and disingenuous”.
The company said Buhari’s decision was based on a legal review by the attorney-general of the federation (AGF), who found the termination unlawful and recommended reinstatement of BUA’s rights.
The organisation said Bihari had called for the review after Rabiu presented the matter to him at a meeting.
Also responding to BUA’s statement, Niran Adedokun, media and communications adviser to Usman, dismissed the firm’s allegations as “half-truths and outright falsehoods”.
He said BUA’s chairman lied when he claimed there was no warning or notification before the revocation.
Adedokun insisted that the company received “a series of default notices and warnings” before the concession was terminated.
The media adviser disputed BUA’s claim that the NPA failed in its obligations, noting that the concessionaire — not the NPA — was responsible for rebuilding the berths.
Adedokun said the claim that the NPA disobeyed the court order, which granted an injunction in favour of BUA, is also untrue.
“The NPA obeyed the court order and allowed BUA access and continued use of the facility from January 2018, when BUA secured the injunction, until June 2019, when it was decommissioned due to safety concerns raised by the company itself,” he said.
“In the 18 months between January 2018, when the company secured the court injunction and June 2019, BUA berthed 117 vessels comprising liquid and dry bulk cargos. This data refutes the claim that the NPA flouted court orders.
“The total number of vessels BUA berthed also indicates that it made full commercial use of the terminal despite the poor quay walls and low draft.
“However, on 16 May 2019, BUA Ports and Terminals Limited wrote to the NPA informing it that the “jetty is in a state of total dilapidation and urgent need of repair or reconstruction…. The company further stated in the letter that “our engineers have advised us that the jetty is liable to collapse at any moment….”
“Upon receiving this letter, the former Managing Director sought the advice of the Engineering Department of the NPA.”
Following the letter, Adedokun said, the NPA’s engineering department advised decommissioning the terminal until reconstruction details were submitted and approved, to avoid endangering nearby facilities and human lives.
He further claimed that BUA’s access to Buhari and his subsequent intervention were based on the manipulation of facts and misinformation.
“It is interesting to note that BUA states with pride that it commenced a contractual obligation it was required to fulfil in 2006, in 2022, which is 16 years after the obligation was due!” he said.
Adedokun also dismissed BUA’s accusation that the NPA abandoned the arbitration process, which he said the authority initiated despite delays by BUA.
“The foregoing facts impugn BUA’s serial attempts to mislead the public and present itself as a victim in the media, while in reality, it operates with the air of a conglomerate that considers itself above the laws of the land,” Adedokun said.
He reiterated that Usman’s tenure at the NPA was solely driven by a commitment to Nigeria’s best interest.
