Minister of
Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has ordered a probe into the financial
activities of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, Akwa Ibom State and
N18 billion remittances to the institution by the Nigerian Maritime
Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) in the last five years. Amaechi gave
the order following allegations of financial recklessness and large scale fraud
leveled against the academy’s rector, Joshua Okpo.
The academy's rector
had recently approached Amaechi to accuse NIMASA of starving the institute of Funds.
Amaechi immediately called for a meeting with the management of NIMASA and
enquired from them why it was sitting on the subvention of MAN, Oron.
This claim was
however refuted by NIMASA's acting DG, Haruna Jauro who told Amaechi that the
agency had remitted over N18 billion to the academy since 2009. At the enquiry
of the minister, the MAN rector, Okpo said he only took over in 2011 to which
NIMASA declared that a sum of N13 billion was remitted to the institution since
the rector took over. When asked what he had done with the N13 billion remitted
to the academy since he took over as Rector, Okpo kept giving incoherent and
inconsistent answers. This made Amaechi to immediately call for a probe.
