Daily Independent Online.
*
Tuesday, August 24, 2004.
Sacked workers
ask BPE to halt bid for Osogbo Steel plant
By ’Gbenga
Faturoti,
Special
Correspondent, Osogbo
The 66-sacked workers of the Federal
Government-owned Osogbo Steel Rolling Company (OSRC) have asked the Bureau of
Public Enterprises (BPE) to stop the bidding of the mill slated for Thursday in
Abuja.
Appointments of the affected workers were
terminated five years ago by the company’s management, prompting the
staff to institute court action against the management.
In a letter addressed to the Director-
General of BPE, Dr. Julius Bala and copied to the presidency and the National
Council of Privatisation by their counsel, Mr. Lekan Alabi, the workers told
the bureau to take cognizance of the court ruling on that case.
Alabi explained that the workers had sued
the company and the minister of Power and Steel to court to challenge the
termination of their employment and the Federal High Court in Osogbo gave
ruling in their favour.
Subsequently, he said the OSRC management
had refused to honour the court judgment and sought for an appellant
court’s intervention on the case.
Attaching all the relevant documents to the
letter, Alabi urged the BPE to handle the privatisation exercise with all
caution. “We would like to inform your good office that there is an
application for injunction restraining the appellants from any privatisation
scheme process in respect of OSRC pending the hearing and determination of the
appeal,” he said.
He further said, “This letter becomes
imperative to avail you of the opportunity to know the status of the OSRC in
relation to the judgment debt on it, which runs into over N100 million in
unpaid salaries and other emoluments.”
“This information is very vital to
your bureau and prospective buyers in ascertaining the assets and liabilities
of the OSRC if or when it is to be privatised and move importantly, the
on-going appeal on the matter,” he said.
Oodua Group of Companies, it was learnt,
was one of the interested firms bidding for the ailing mill.
