NASS pledges budgetary support for burnt NPA building

The National Assembly has promised budgetary support in rebuilding the Lagos corporate office of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), which was burnt during the recent #EndSARS protest.

It advised the management of NPA to adjust its 2021 budget to reflect the damage suffered when hoodlums raised the building, looted goods before setting it on fire.

The Chairman, House Committee on Ports and Harbour, Garba Datti Muhammad, and the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Tolu Odebiyi, gave this advice while touring NPA Corporate office in Lagos to ascertain the extent of damage done to the property.

The National Assembly members were guided on the tour by the Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, and top management officials of NPA.

Hon. Muhammad lamented the monumental damage done to the NPA office which, according to him, was recently re-constructed.

“We have gone round and seen the extent of the damage to the building and vehicles that were burnt in the fire incident. This will help the National Assembly to assist NPA in rebuilding the damage on the torched building. However, part of our discussion was for the NPA to bring its budget to the National Assembly because we advised them to adjust the budget to accommodate the rebuilding of the damage,” he noted.

Senator Odebiyi, on his part, lauded NPA for ensuring that ports operations were not affected. “We assured them that the National Assembly remains in full support of them. We will give them our full backing to carry out all the reform policies and transformation that are ongoing. We also told them to extend to us all the budget alteration if there is any, to enable them to carry out the repairs,” he said while briefing the press.

The NPA boss thanked the leadership of the National Assembly for the support to help the Authority on the path to recovery.

“We have full insurance cover and to the extent that there are gaps, we appreciate that the National Assembly is willing to accommodate that to ensure our offices are put back the way they are and every item that was looted or vandalised is recovered within the shortest period.”