PUBLISHER of Shipping World Magazine, Elder Asu Beks, has challenged Transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi, to come out with facts and figures that the management of Maritime Academy of Nigeria, MAN, Oron, Akwa Ibom State, squandered N19 billion and also abused its N250 million approval limit. Amaechi Amaechi had said, during a radio programme in Abuja, that the out-gone management mismanaged huge sums disbursed to it while justifying the appointment of a six- man committee headed by Chief Adebayo Sarumi to oversee the institution for six months.
The Minister had claimed on the radio programme that there was nothing on ground at Oron to justify the huge funds made available to the institution. Beks challenged the minister to visit the Academy to see the state of affairs of the premier maritime institution instead of relying on third party sources. According to Beks: “It is regrettable that the minister is yet to pay an official visit to the Academy more than two years into the life of this administration.
This is not acceptable and smacks of a lack of commitment to address the myriad of problems facing the institution.” He explained that it is uncharitable to peddle a non-existent N250 million approval for MAN, Oron, knowing full well that this is not the case. The publisher also challenged the appointment of an interim management committee for the Academy which he argued was in total breach of the Act establishing the Academy. He also called on the minister to rescind the decision to suspend the two-year admission embargo slammed on new intakes into the Academy.
Source:Vanguard
