Suspended Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Hadiza Bala-Usman, has threatened to take legal action against Sahara Reporters if it does not stop its relentless campaign of calumny against her person.
Bala-Usman in a statement on Friday said it must by now be obvious to all Nigerians of good conscience that Sahara Reporters is bent on tarnishing her image.
She said: “Over the past two weeks, the publication has continued to spread false and rehashed stories directed at maligning my personality and casting aspersions on my reputation and service to the nation.
“This, they do in total disregard of all rebuttals, which would have been needless but for the need to maintain my personal integrity and that of my family.”
Bala-Usman cited a story published on Thursday by Sahara Reporters, entitled: “Budget report indicts ex-NPA boss, Usman shows unapproved N831 million spent on hotels in 2016, 2017.”
This story, she said, shows the relentless war that the publication is waging against her personality for reasons best known to them.
Usman said: “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.
“However, rather than seek the authentic statements, Sahara Reporters have 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.
“Earlier in the day on 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 story is total falsehood, and a pathetic reflection of what Sahara Reporters has become.
“I challenge the publication to produce any document that links me with this building.”
Bala-Usman said the time had come for her to serve notice on Sahara Reporters and its cohorts to desist from publishing unfounded stories targeted at tarnishing her image.
She said: “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.
“I will take legal action against Sahara Reporters if it continues in this manner.”
