ALSCON Privatisation Untidy - Obasanjo
From Josephine Lohor and Efem Nkanga in Uyo
President Olusegun Oba-sanjo weekend in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State said the handling of the privatisation of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) was untidy.
Following the Federal Government privatisation of ALSCON, the alumnimium smelter company had been offered to a core investor by the sub-committee of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP).
Obasanjo at an interactive session with grassroot people said: "If negotiations go on very well, I want to assure you that before the end of this month, the issue of ALSCON would be a thing that we would have put behind us."
He also noted that "ALSCON is a problem that the FG would solve. Long before this government came into being, ALSCON had been in the news and one of the things which had given Nigeria a bad name for corruption, is ALSCON. One of the places I visited before my swearing-in was ALSCON because there was so much that I had heard about it."
The president said the people who were involved in the sale of ALSCON did not do a tidy arrangement. So, we had to disengage that arrangement where whatever is produced, only one country can buy it and it can buy it at a particular cost of arrangement. We had to tear this apart through transparency.
"The truth is this. If our screening had been right, that group (American) would also have been disqualified. Because that group had no technical know-how. I believe that the disqualified group (Russian) should not have been disqualified because what they were doing was that they were asking for concessions."
Two companies, Rusal (Bratsk) Aluminium of Russia and BFIGroup of United States were the companies pre-qualified to bid for ALSCON.
Rusal was, however, disqualified for making a conditional bid June 14, when the financial bids for the multi-million naira plant were opened at the NICON-HILTON Hotel in Abuja.
The bid winners, BFIGroup of America led by a Nigerian, Dr. Reuben Jaja, was named core investor to take up 77.5 per cent Federal Government equity in the firm at the bid price of $410 million.
BFIGroup, however, failed to pay 10 per cent of the bid price or $41 million as required by the payment guidelines within 15 days but rather requested for an extension of two weeks from July 8, when the deadline expired to enable it pay the money.
This request was turned down as the Federal Government cancelled the transaction on July 9.
Indications that the Russian firm may return to ALSCON emerged barely 24 hours after BFIGroup was named as the bid winners following reports that the Federal Government had asked a three-man team to re-open discussions with Rusal's representatives, who were about to leave the country.
The Russian firm, which offered $205 million in its disqualified bid, reportedly reviewed downward, the bid price to $160 million payable in two installments over a two-year period.
Minister of Power and Steel, Senator Liyel Imoke, late last month said the Federal Government has offered the plant to Rusal, adding that the Russian firm was negotiating with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
Obasanjo also charged cassava farmers in the state to ensure increased cassava production in order to reap the benefits that abound in the crop.
He expressed regrets that despite the fact that the nation was the largest producer of cassava, the farmers have continued to neglect the crop at a time when the international committe needs it most.
The President stated that "let me use this opportunity to tell cassava farmers that their efforts is not in vain. The world market for cassava has increased cause of its newly discovered uses as raw materials for poultry feed, in starch making and also for ethanol."
Obasanjo, responding to a request by the Governor of Akwa Ibom State that the Federal Government make a law to restrict fishing in its waters, said, "fishing in our territorial waters is not a problem of law. It is a problem of the enforcement of law. I need a strong Navy that would be able to go beyond the nautical miles which is obtainable. And I need to keep them there. I am in the process of doing that."
He disclosed that the Federal Government would soon send a strong permanent detachment of the Nigerian Navy to enforce fishing laws on Nigeria's territorial waters.
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