The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga has deleted his post on the X platform after shipping giant, Maersk, denied plans of investing $600 million in Nigeria’s port sector.
A statement released by the presidential media team, which Onanuga shared on X, claimed that the investment was secured during a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh over the weekend.
It was disclosed that A.P Moller-Maersk chairman, Robert Maersk Uggla, had discussed the investment with President Tinubu on the sidelines of a meeting discussing energy development and growth.
The statement even included a direct quote attributed to Uggla saying: “We believe in Nigeria, and we will invest $600 million in existing facilities and make the ports accommodating for bigger ships”. END QUOTE
However, Maersk officials, in a statement to Lloyds List, one of the world’s oldest continuously running journals, refuted the existence of a signed deal, emphasizing that while discussions with the Nigerian government were ongoing, no concrete investment plans had been established.
Maersk also stated such a deal does not exist as the claim appears to be news to its officials.
A recent check on Bayo Onanuga’s X handle shows that the post has now been deleted.