The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Mohammed Bello Koko, has slammed those he called ‘desperate hustlers’ for relentlessly seeking to damage his reputation ever since President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him to the position in 2021.
Koko said after failed attempts to extort him, the yet-to-be identified individuals are now seeking visa cancellation and forfeiture of assets belonging to his family by the UK Government.
Some news platforms (not THE WHISTLER) had earlier reported that some foreign investigators wrote to the UK Government seeking visa ban on Koko, his wife and other family members over allegations of corruption and money laundering.
Advertisement
The reports said the investigators also sought confiscation of assets belonging to Koko’s family in a letter allegedly written to Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary of the United Kingdom.
But speaking in a personality signed statement on Saturday, the NPA MD dismissed the claim that the letter addressed to the UK Home Secretary was written by foreign investigators.
He noted that the UK property being referred to was listed in his assets declaration form submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), adding that it was purchased on a 15-year mortgage payment plan before he was appointed into public office.
According to him, the letter written to the UK Home Secretary contains ‘regurgitated allegations’ that ‘faceless’ individuals under the guise of civil society organizations have attempted to blackmail him with but failed.
Noting that he would not succumb to cheap blackmail, Koko dared persons allegedly sponsoring the reports against him to reveal their identities.
“Having failed in their desperation to dent or hurt my integrity, they have resorted to a very cruel campaign of calumny against my person and my family.
“Because they are faceless, I don’t have the opportunity to seek redress in court on the grounds of their rehashed and rehearsed lies.
“I need to reiterate that for all of my years as a banker and a public officer up till today, I have never been indicted or convicted by any court. And this fact is in the public domain.
“I’m also certain that my integrity as well as dedication and fidelity to the rules of public administration must have influenced the decision by the Federal Government of Nigeria to promote me from the rank of Executive Director (Finance and Administration) to Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Ports Authority.
“Resorting to writing to the UK Government, seeking visa cancellation and forfeiture of assets belonging to my wife and I, is not only malicious but also cruel and wicked. I have yet to understand why these evil machinations would be orchestrated against me. Is the offence that I committed my acceptance and readiness to serve my country to the best of my ability?” he queried.
Koko said before the latest attempt, a series of sponsored blackmails have “been targeted at me” since in 2021 after he was elevated from the position of Executive Director of Finance and Administration of the NPA to Managing Director.
“In deceit, they have disingenuously claimed in the sponsored report that UK/Ireland Investigators were the ones that had written to the UK government after they had purportedly unearthed alleged criminal acts against me, bordering on money laundering activities, fraud, forgery, and tax evasion, which are all baseless figments of their malicious intent.
“Whereas, particulars cited in the report were the regurgitated allegations that they had sponsored and which had been doing the rounds in the media from the outset, this latest attempt is as spurious as their first attempt ever.
“Their claim that UK/Ireland Investigators, and not Metropolitan Police or Scotland Yard, are investigating me falls flat on its face and gives out the sponsors of the report- which is a piece of cheap blackmail-as desperate hustlers who are not civil and neither working in the interest of the society,” said Koko.
He added, ” I challenge the conduit pipes of this malice to go ahead and mention the names and true identities of the CSOs and the investigators.
“If the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had been on the matter as indicated in the report, it is then unfair to suggest or claim that some questionable UK/Ireland Investigators are now pushing for exclusion order to ban me from ever entering the United Kingdom. One expects that there should be inter-agency collaboration in line with some bilateral or mutual agreements.
“All the supposed assertions and innuendos in the report are nothing but spurious and malicious concoctions intended to cause a predetermined damage.
“I had, on several occasions, stated that the NPA under my leadership is not aware of any secret foreign accounts and I could not have been a beneficiary of something that I am not aware of and, which I would like to emphasize is non – existent to the best of my knowledge.”