Usman mulls legal action against online media over campaign of calumny

Hadiza Bala Usman, the suspended managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has vowed to take legal action against online media over its alleged ceaseless campaign of calumny against her person.

Usman in a statement personally signed by her, which was sent to newsmen on Friday, said the online publication has continued to spread false stories directed at maligning her personality and casting aspersions on her reputation as well as her service to the nation.

According to her, the publication on Thursday, May 20, 2021, published a story with the headline: “Budget report indicts ex-NPA boss, Usman shows unapproved N831million spent on hotels in 2016,2017.”

“This story shows the relentless war that the publication is waging against my personality for reasons best known to them. The fact is that the NPA has its audited financial statements for the years 2016, 2017, and 2018. These statements have the authentic figures of the Authority’s expenditure over those years,” she said.

Continuing, she said: “Rather than seek the authentic statements, they depended on snapshots of documents that are unauthenticated, apparently because they fit the already concocted and devious narratives that they love to sell to the public.

Usman further disclosed that on the same Thursday, Sahara Reporters Television released the video of a building with the title, “Alleged Zaria edifice built by Hadiza Bala Usman while in office as MD of Nigerian Ports Authority.”

“Again, this the story is a total falsehood, and a pathetic reflection of what the publication has become. I challenge it to produce any document that links me with this building.

“It is time to serve notice on the publication and its cohorts to desist from publishing unfounded stories targeted at tarnishing my image. I have chosen to maintain a calm mien to this consistent falsehood, conscious of the demand of accountability, which national service places on me. However, there is always a limit to which one can endure this needless perpetuation of falsehood,” Usman warned.