The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has denied reports of a rift within its management structure over the appointment of the Acting Managing Director, Olawale Adetola.
The authority also commended the immediate past Managing Director, George Moghalu, for handing over to Adetola, who is most senior General Manager, in line with the extant rules.
NIWA Acting General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Jibril Darda’u, stated this in a statement made available to newsmen in Lokoja on Monday.
Darda’u said there was no rift among the General Managers over who should head the authority in acting capacity pending when the Federal Government will appoint a substantive managing director.
He described as unfortunate the action of a group that called itself the Maritime Pressure Group, which berated the performance of Moghalu, whose four years tenure came to an end on September 29, and for handing over to Adetola in acting capacity.
“The group’s discredit assertion on the four year administration of Chief George Moghalu is not true, as it is an act of sponsored blackmail, considering his landmark achievements during his tenure. This is verifiable to the general public. It is a known fact that Chief George Moghalu, being a seasoned politician, and a technocrat, that did not hinder his official performance in NIWA. Rather he infused his experience, culture and innovation of the private sector for the success recorded in NIWA so far.
“The fact is that Chief George Moghalu, being a law abiding citizen, handed over the leadership of NIWA to the most senior General Manager on the exact date his tenure ended during working hours and not in the night as purported. We will continue to reiterate that Chief George Moghalu tried his best in uplifting and developing the inland waterways sector. He left NIWA better than he met it,” he said.
The acting NIWA Managing Director joined the authority in 1992 and was promoted to the post of a General Manager in 2018. He was the pioneer General Manager, Business Development department and later headed the Procurement department.
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