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Uche Usim, Abuja
Hopes of reviving the $3.2 billion Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) in Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State, are waning as the preferred bidder, BFIG Group and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) are still locked in supremacy battle over the outfit, 16 years after it won the bid.
BFIG President, Mr Reuben Jaja, in an interview with journalists in Abuja at the weekend alleged among other claims that the BPE altered the contents of the original Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) and eventually compressed it from a 58 page document to 16 pages; and in the process, scrubbed off information that would have made his company’s takeover of the privatised outfit much easier. He said by reducing the SPA to 16 pages, most vital provisions including an important provision that addresses gas purchase agreement were yanked off.
This, he said, was in gross violation of the judgement of the Supreme Court on the matter. He also alleged that some top government officials offered him a $35 million bribe to drop his bid for ALSCON.
Reacting to his weighty allegations, the Director-General of BPE, Mr Alex Okoh, punctured Jaja’s claims, insisting that he (Jaja) had already signed the agreement as ordered by the Supreme Court.
“Why did he sign it if it was the wrong one? He signed in December last year. We have a copy of the agreement and we can show it to the press if he wants. The agreement he signed stipulates that he makes payment within 15 days. He has not made any payment. It is very unfortunate that we can allow this kind of irresponsibility from a Nigerian who has done everything to castrate such a vital national asset with no intention to change his behavior. It is very unfortunate. I will not condone it.
“By the way, why would I offer him money. It is ludicrous. I am the seller of the asset not a buyer. Why would I offer him money. For what? Where do I get the money to offer him and for what purpose? This fellow is desperately trying to muddle up the truth. If he has money to pay in line with the Supreme Court judgement, let him just bring the money. Period! To try and use cheap blackmail to acquire such a strategic national asset for free or through the back door is disingenuous to be frank. It’s not going to happen. No amount of cheap blackmail will make that happen”, Okoh said.
The Supreme Court had in a judgment of July 6, 2012, ruled that the Bureau of Public Enterprises returned ALSCON to BFIG, an American company.
A Russian company had earlier been disqualified by BPE from the financial bid process after it submitted a conditional bid in contravention of the bidding guidelines.
Despite the disqualification of the Russian firm, the Federal Government under former President Olusegun Obasanjo decided to give ALSCON to RUSAL, thereby setting the stage for the preferred bidder, BFIG, to drag BPE to court.
Jaja faulted BPE’s claim that BFIG was presented with SPA on more than one ocassion, but failed to make payment.
He said, “In 2012, after more than four months of the Supreme Court’s judgment, the BPE boss at the time agreed to give BFIG the same 58-page SPA given to UC RUSAL in 2006 to sign.
“The document contained almost all what BFIG agreed to as bidders at a special technical conference of all parties to the bid in 2004, including BPE and all other bidders.”
