MINISTER OF JUSTICE, MOHAMMED BELLO ADOKE
SAN FRANCISCO, September 19, (THEWILL) – The House of Representatives on Thursday summoned the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, to appear before its joint committees on justice, privatisation and commercialisation on October 3 to explain the position of the Federal Government on the reconcession of the National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO), Itakpe and Delta Steel Company to an Indian company, Global Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (GINL).
Also summoned is the Managing Director of the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), Mustapha Chike-Obi.
Chairman of the House Committee on Steel Development, Hon. Sadiq Asema (PDP, Kogi), announced the decision of the House at the public hearing organised to investigate the rot at the Delta Steel Company, Aladja and NIOMCO, Itakpe.
The chairman of the committee said “although the committee has accepted the apology from the Minister of Justice, we will give him another chance. He must appear before us on the 3rd of October and must come along with the details of the case between the Federal Government and the ICC in London. We want to know who our lawyers are; we want details of all the mediation meetings.
“We will also want to have submission of the Federal Government and the GINL to the ICC in London. He must also come along with the settlement agreement over NIOMCO and DSC.”
The host community in its presentation rejected the reconcession of NIOMCO to the Indians again, explaining that they virtually ran aground the company. Representative of the host community and Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, Alhaji Ado Ibrahim. in his presentation, declared that his people are opposed to the reconcession of NIOMCO to the Indian company, GINL, lamenting that the company has destroyed NIOMCO.
“I am not here to say Russians must come. But I must remind you that the Russian built Itakpe and you can’t bring Indians to come and work on it. I hope government would consult us before any concession.
“As a father to my people, I’m very touched when I see the damage done to NIOMCO by GINL. I am shocked that a company like GINL would go so low to do many of the things it did. I have intervened 22 times between labour and GINL. The minister has also intervened severally, yet GINL went ahead to do what it did. We are not fools. We are not inferior to anybody in the world. GINL has not apologised for what it did,” the traditional ruler said.
In his welcome address, the chairman of the committee on Steel, Hon Sadiq Asema Mohammed, expressed disappointment that for a project that would generate huge income to Nigeria, the government is shying away from doing the needful which include proper funding and choosing the right firm that would be committed to making the companies work.
In a keynote address delivered on his behalf by the chief whip of the House, Hon Isiaka Bawa, Speaker of the House, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, noted that previous efforts to privatise or concession government assets failed due “to lack of adherence to laws governing privatisation and wrong attitude of concessionaire towards contractual terms and conditions as well as absence of a work programme.”
He noted that ” As representatives of the people, we are aware that Nigerians are tired with this recurrent decimal that has weakened the smooth take off of the steel sector.”
