Executive vice chairman
of SOLGAS Energy
Limited, Mr. Seun Oyefeso, said yesterday that protests by some workers of Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL), against his company’s management of the steel plant was instigated by “certain extraneous for-ces,” and were ill motivated.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja over the crisis in ASCL, Mr. Oyefeso who said that the workers had every cause to protest the cut in their wages, affirmed that the calls for the termination of the federal government’s concession agreement with SOLGAS was uncalled for and sponsored by his com-pany’s detractors.
“Quite honestly, my attitude to the ongoing problem with the staff is one of understanding. Because, when without notice, wages dropped by about 50 per cent, quite honestly it pained me to learn that some members of staff went home with N500 or N1000 to feed their families in a month.
“Because, there were bills; there were debts they were owing. And definitely, many people were unpre-pared for that,” the SOLGAS boss said.
The concession arrang-ement between the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and SOLGAS on Ajaokuta provides that the former will continue to pay wages while the latter funds rehabi-litation, completion and management. Daily Trust had reported protests by the Iron and Steel Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ISSSAN) and the Steel Workers’ Union of Nigeria (SEWUN), Ajaokuta chapter, in May, over a 50 percent cut in salary alloc-ations to the steel plant by the federal government. The cut in wages bill also affected other steel companies in the country.
Mr Oyefeso said, “a hungry man is an angry man, and so it is only natural that these workers will protest any deductions in their wa-ges,” adding however that such action could not have triggered any protests aga-inst SOLGAS” management of Ajaokuta.
He said that contrary to insinuations, SOLGAS had carried out rehabilitation of some major parts of the Ajaokuta steel plant. “We rehabilitated definitely, all the utilities and the auxiliary units that would be required for the production of iron rods and wire rods in our light section and wire rod mills,” he said, adding that “as we speak, rehabilitation is virt-ually completed on one of our 55 megawatt turbines.”
While admitting that “the pace (of work in the plant) has been slow,” he said this was caused by a problem with SOLGAS’ technical partner, Global Metrix. He assured that his company was currently working on “some strategic partne-rships” that would enhance speedy rehabilitation and completion of the steel plant.
Reiterating that SOLGAS remained undaunted by the protests against its mana-gement of Ajaokuta, Mr Oyefeso said such incide-nces would not stop his com-pany from keeping to its deadline of producing liquid steel in Ajaokuta.
“The people (of Ajao-kuta) including majority of our workers are very good people, and I don’t think bec-ause certain elements are using some few bad eggs within, we cannot keep to our deadline.”
The SOLGAS boss reite-rated that although the shortfall in revenue was a signal to him to retrench some workers, “I made a pro-mise about the jobs of wor-kers. I told them that I wou-ldn’t retrench en masse. And I believe we still want to do this because, like I said, most of the people we have there are good people.”
The SOLGAS vice chai-rman also dismissed as “unt-rue,” reports that he and other members of his team were chased out of Ajaokuta, saying, “as we speak now, work is still ongoing in the plant.”
