By JAMES OJO, AbujaMonday, December 17, 2007
A tour of Delta Steel Company, Aladja in Delta state, National Iron Ore Mining at Itakpe and Ajaokuta Steel Company in Kogi by the House of Representatives Committee on Privatization and Commercialization has revealed a mind-boggling fraud.As a result of the shock discovery, chairman of the committee, Hon Njidda Ahmed Gella, has proposed to the House to cancel the concession and sale of the three companies to Messrs Global Infrastructure Nigeria Limited [GNIL], believed to be owned by Gbenga, son of former president, Olusegun Obasanjo.From the findings of the committee, it was discovered that GNIL was yet to make serious investment to turn the moribund companies around, instead, it had depended largely on the stock of spare parts inherited before the concession.“We also observed that where production has been going on in all the three companies, GNIL has failed to pay taxes, VAT, Insurance cover for plant, machineries, vehicles, or staff- cover.“Even where such taxes are deducted from Nigerian staff salaries and wages, such taxes and even pension contributions have never been remitted to appropriate authorities.“Same goes for other deduction from staff salaries for contributions to their various welfare and cooperative societies,” he stated.Gella noted that with what the committee saw on ground at the companies, there were no signs that GNIL was a serious investor.For instance, since GNIL took over at Aladja steel, it had not produced any liquid steel, in spite of the massive quantities of iron ore concentrate received from Itakpe Iron ore.
“In addition to the concentrate, the DSC had been receiving other adhesives for the production of liquid steel, such as limestone, GNIL choose to reduce the iron ore to pellets for export. No steel had been produced,” he alleged.This practice, the committee noted, had been going since the company was conceded to GNIL three years ago.At National Iron Ore, massive cannibalization of government properties and equipment were noticed, with breakdown of plants and machines due to lack of spare parts.“Cannibalization of new equipment in the units still in the hands of major contractors to replace broken down equipments including over 2km of conveyor belts. When quantified, this runs into millions of naira.“While records show that the company had a stock pile of over 400,000 tons of refined iron ore concentrate, Messrs GNIL claimed to have met only about180,000 tons.“This has been evacuated and apparently exported without payment to the Federal Government. We also noted that though the company is still in production, where its products are taken to, at what cost, etc, is not clearly defined.”
What is certain is that no liquid steel is being produced out of the concentrate here in Nigeria. Again, staff are not paid as at when due,” the committee observed.The committee described the situation at Ajaokuta as a disaster. It was noted that the complex was deserted, vandalized and over grown with weeds.“We saw absolutely no evidence of investment except in selected finished units of the complex. There was no evidence of any attempt to complete the remaining two percent of the life-wire of the complex- the Blast Furnace,” the committee lamented.The committee recommended that the Ajaokuta Steel company be returned to the Russians and Ukrainians to manage, while the major contractors handling the Iron Ore company at Itakpe be made to complete the repairs and complete all the units.
