Maritime Academy of Nigeria Rector, Joseph Okpo, is dead

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Late Joseph Okpo

The Rector, Maritime
Academy of Nigeria, Mr Joshua Okpo, is dead. He died in Abuja on Tuesday where
he had gone to defend his 2016 budget before the National Assembly.

Sources
close to MAN said that when staff of the institution, who had waited at the
National Assembly for hours did not see their boss for the budget defence, they
had gone to his residence only to discover that he had passed on in his room.

The cause of his
death was however not known as at the time of filing this report.

His body was said
to have been deposited in the mortuary at the National Hospital, Abuja.

Okpo has been in
the news for some time now with the report that the Transport Minister, Mr Chibuike
Amaechi had directed that the allegation of large scale fraud leveled against
the management of his school be investigated.

The problem
started when the Rector, according to our sources, accused the Nigerian
Maritime Administration and Safety Agency( NIMASA) of starving MAN by not
releasing its subvention.

He was said to
have told the Minister that this has affected the infrastructure development of
the School.

On getting this
report, the Minister was said to have summoned both managements of NMASA and
MAN to his office to find out the truth.

According to our
source, the Acting Director-General of NIMASA, Haruna Jauro had denied the
allegation, saying that so far, NIMASA had remitted over N18 billion to MAN
since 2009.

On inquiry by the
Minister, Okpo said the amount given to MAN was N13 billion adding that he took over
in 2011.

The Minister who
our source said was not happy with the Rector for not giving him a true picture
of the situation of the amount the school received as subvention had ordered an
audit report on the institution.

The Minister, our
source said, wants to find the details of how the subvention was spent
following allegations that there is lack of physical infrastructural
development of the school.

The source said
the Minister was not satisfied about the answer given by the Rector on how the
amount was spent.

The Minister had
ordered immediate audit of all the amounts said to have been remitted to the
School since 2009.

The Ministry of
Transport is to carry out on the–spot- assessment of the facilities at MAN to
ascertain how the N13 billion was used by the school.

A source was
quoted saying, ‘’We could have gone last week Tuesday but for the trip the
chief executive of the agency and the Minister made to London to attend IMO
meeting. When they come back this week, we shall carry out the Minister’s
directive.’’

The Minister is
reported to have demanded for the model of a similar institution in Egypt in
order to compare with what is on ground in MAN, Oron.

The probe will
determine the extent of how the funds released to the institutions were
utilized following allegation of frivolous spending by the management of the
school.

When
contacted, the Public Relation Officer of the Academy, Sidi Mpadiok was reported
to have said such accusations were not new.

He maintained that
those raising such allegations were disgruntled elements.
He was
quoted saying, “Well, I can’t answer for that, I can’t answer for the financial
status of the Academy.

“NIMASA and the
Rector are the ones that can say things about the finances of the Academy.
Financial recklessness is nothing new and this has been addressed.

“Agitators have nothing new to say, most of them are
disgruntled and until we get the detail, there is nothing I can say.”