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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 locking horns over the outfit, 16 years after the company 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.
The Russian company had been earlier 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 DG 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 the bidders” .
“In the meeting, it was agreed that whoever emerges winners will be invited by the BPE to negotiate the SPA, after which 15 working days will be allowed for the winner to make payment.
“Immediately, BFIG received the SPA, it did not waste time to sign it. This was in October 2012. In the transmittal letter to BPE, BFIG requested from BPE to provide its account coordinates to deposit the $41m initial payment.
“One month passed, BPE did not give any response. We wrote them a reminder, sill no response between October 2012 when BFIG returned the completed SPA and January 2013.
“Later, they wrote to apologise that they were organising so we can go and inspect the property and conduct a technical audit, so that we know what we were buying” .
“When the then BPE DG refused to change the decision, he was fired from office. After four months, all of a sudden, BPE abandoned the 58-page agreement we had signed and returned to them” .
He claimed that when the new DG of the BPE, Mr Benjamin Dikki assumed office, he gave the BFUG an abridged version of the SPA which omitted key components of the transaction
“The new DG then (Benjamin Dikki) came in January. His first job was to give BFIG a brand new agreement.
“This time, only 16 pages. BFIG reviewed this 16-page document, and wondered how BPE dropped the agreement from 58 pages approved by the Supreme Court to just 16 pages.
“In the new agreement, key attachments, including the source of gas supply, were removed. Everything that would make BFIG successful were carefully uprooted by BPE from the agreement” .
He said based on the 16 page SPA, BFIG was of the view that the project was not commercially viable, as no serious commercial bank would want to finance such transaction.
“To worsen the situation, BFIG had already submitted the other signed 58-page agreement to its Board of Directors, bankers, investors and lawyers in the United States. BPE had assured us in writing that all was well.
“But, that is where the new fight started after the Supreme Court ruling”, he said.
Economic experts have repeatedly said that except something was done quickly, the $3.2 billion ALSCON may eventually join the league of historical relics in Nigeria as the erstwhile money spinner has been hobbled by litigation.
They insist that the Federal Government and BPE would jointly take the credit for facilitating the very sad spectacle, and the blighting of a promising company with potential to offer 1, 500 Nigerians direct employment.
