The Management of BUA Ports and Terminal, BUA Group, has urged the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) to desist from peddling inaccurate information about their deliberate, quick and illegal decommissioning of BUA Terminal in Port Harcourt, Rivers State without following due process.
Responding to statements credited to the Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority, Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman stating that the decision was taken for health and safety reasons as a result of failure of the terminal operators to reconstruct the berths, BUA disclosed that the NPA failed to carry out any of its own obligations under the Lease Agreement which are necessary and required for any meaningful reconstruction to take place. Neither has it responded to BUA’s several requests for approval to perform remedial action on the berth.
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Notwithstanding, BUA said they had contacted a renowned construction company to effect the needed repairs at the terminal and thereafter paid the sum of 4.7million euros but lamented that approval letters sent to the NPA for work to begin were without reply thereby making any construction work impossible. BUA also said the failure of the NPA to provide security for the terminal as required in the lease agreement has given way for nefarious activities of hoodlums and vandals who over a period of time cut the pipes and steel beams of the berths thereby affecting their stability and consequently making remedial works imperative.
In another statement by BUA Group, they described attempts by the NPA to ensure it decommissions BUA Ports and Terminal without due consideration for arbitration or the subsisting court injunction, as scripted and in total disregard for due process and the rule of law.
According to the statement, “It is gratifying to note that the MD of the NPA admitted issuing a Notice of Termination but interestingly omitted to acknowledge that NPA failed to abide with the provisions of the Lease Agreement especially the dispute resolution provisions. The Agreement provides that certain steps must be taken where there is a dispute which if cannot be resolved amicably, should be referred to arbitration.
