OMSL denies involvement in alleged attack of NPA MD by hoodlums

By Samson Echenim 

The management of Ocean Marine Solutions Limited (OMSL) has denied sponsoring hoodlums to attack Hadiza USman Balla, managing director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in Abuja.

The NPA boss had reported attempted attack on her person by hoodlums allegedly sponsored by OMSL, a company she was having a lingering battle over an anchorage area on the water off Lagos.

She had on Wednesday, petitioned the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan alleging that she was physically attacked by hoodlums at the premises of the National Assembly in Abuja on Tuesday after she appeared at the joint senate committee which is currently probing the NPA/OMSL faceoff over the Secured Anchorage Area (SAA).

Reacting to the allegation, Chuma Adogu, a retired navy commodore, said the allegation was a falsehood and a figment of imagination, saying the Chairman of OMSL, Captain Hosa Wells Okunbo, a fine gentlemen who has served the nation diligently in various capacities, could not have sponsored thugs to attack the NPA boss.

Adogu noted that on that Tuesday there was no sign of such alleged attack or rented crowd in the premises of the National Assembly that could warrant such allegation, maintaining that OMSL management came to the National Assembly just like  other invited organisations on the day of the investigation by the Joint Committee of the Senate investigating the SAA.

He said, ‘’On the day of the investigation at the National Assembly, we came like other invited organizations and we never came with any thugs or rented crowd to harass anybody talkless the Managing Director of NPA. The security at the premises of the National Assembly was very tight as everybody was routinely checked and controlled while entering thus forestalling any rented crowd or thugs to gain entrance. We came before the panel and presented our position in the SAA without nursing hatred against anyone.

‘’Let me make it clear to the Nigerian public that OMSL is a responsible corporate organisation with a lot of Nigerians working as its employees. We are mindful of this and never can we trade it away. We do not have hands in the alleged attack Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman. We see this as part of the attempts to discredit OMS and distract attention from the main issue which is already with the Senate.”