Shocking revelation

SHOCKING revelations have emerged after President Umaru Yar’Adua, last week, ordered the termination of the controversial sale of 80 per cent shares of the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL) and the National Mining Iron Ore Company (NIOMCO), Itakpe to an Indian firm, Global Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (GINL), one of them being that GINL has made not less than N5.52 billion from deals relating to ASCL, NIOMCO and Delta Steel Company Limited (DSCL). Yet it has not remitted a kobo as tax or any other statutory payment to the Federal Government, the Magaji Inua panel which nailed them has revealed.
The report said the concession agreement signed by the two parties was designed to fail so that the Indians could make money to the detriment of Nigerians.

2 ex-aides to Obasanjo Directors of Delta Steel

Vanguard has impeccable evidence which shows that two former aides of former President Olusegun Obasanjo are Directors of the DSCL, valued at N184 billion, but sold to GINL at N3.6 billion ($30 million) 2004.

A letter written to the then President Obasanjo by the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) on May 22, 2007, signed by Mrs Nenadi Usman, acting Chair of NCP and Minister of Finance at the time, stated on page 4 paragraph 5 that, “in the course of deliberations, some concerns were expressed as to whether a Joint Venture partnership between the BPE and GINL was legal especially that GINL was not making any cash payments to the Federal Government Treasury…”

The letter went on to note that, “Your Excellency, it is against this background of doubts raised by some members of the Council as to whether the contemplated transaction (Share Sales Purchase Agreement –– SSPA) falls within the ambit of the powers of the Council that it was resolved that the matter be referred to you for your consideration.”

Obasanjo approves deal despite Nenadi's memo

Obasanjo approved the demand on the same letter. The approval, which was written in long hand and signed as O. O. on May 23, 2007, reads: “Approved,” but added that, “additional $11.6 million will be provided by the buyer to pay off the staff to sustain industrial peace.”

The approval was conveyed to Mrs Nenadi Usman and the Director-General of the BPE, Dr Irene Chigbue, on May 24, 2008 in a letter reference: PRES/87/128 signed by Taiwo Ojo, Special Assistant to the President.His particular post as Special Assistant was not stated. GINL, acquired the two companies and has still not paid a kobo, as the panel found out.

As it turned out, the Inua panel came out with a depressing finding that showed, among others, on page 40 article 6 (A) to (E) how GINL defrauded Nigeria through many schemes.

Converting the entire sums into Naira shows that GINL has siphoned not less than N5.52 billion of the steel company’s resources as the panel said there was no evidence of any investment in the ASCL and NIOMCO by GINL since their takeover.

Deal skewed against FG —Report

The panel grimly noted on page 14 (1) of the report that: “The Concession Agreement between the Federal Government and GINL is a document crafted in a desperate hurry, carefully and purposefully skewed against the FGN, with open-ended obligations.

“The obligations are impossible to achieve in the absence of built-in milestones in a Time-Scale Strategy. It was, therefore, designed to fail from the beginning: heaping blames and causing unquantifiable losses to the FGN and leaving GINL with monumental economic leverages. The FGN was short-changed by all those thought-out and configured the agreement,” the panel wrote.

Vanguard investigation shows that the Concession agreement was written by the then Legal Adviser to the Ministry of Mines and Power, Dr. Grace Eyoma, who was then made the Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Company Secretary/Legal Adviser of GINL, Mr. Love K. Sharma, an Indian, who has since been sacked by his company for reasons which would be revealed in subsequent reports. Senator Liyel Imoke, who as Minister of Power and Steel, and a lawyer, vetted the agreement and endorsed it on behalf of the FGN.

Vanguard will tomorrow reveal how GINL has taken advantage of the weak concession agreement and dragged the FGN, last week, to a court in London.

Already, President Yar’Adua has asked the EFCC to step into the case with a view to prosecuting both Federal Government and GINL officials found culpable for assets stripping.



Table showing summary of items and sums removed from Nigeria by GINL in the Last 3 years
No Item amount

A Details of Statutory obligations outstanding (PAYE, VAT, Royalties etc) N350,6079210.11
B Conversion of Property
1 Sales of Iron Ore from NIOMCO $1,077,545.00
2 Sales of Premium Scraps from ASCL yard N203,371,260.27
3 Receipt from Prestige Inc. Compensation for Spares burnt N340,000,000.00
4 Bank Balance at Takeover N 89,143,718.00
5 NOTAP Approval illegally utilised $ 17,143,718.00
6 Quantity of billets met at ASCL utilised @ 285/tonne $ 79,372.50
7 Rent Received from non-ASCL staff N41.044,450.93
8 Rent from ASCL staff N21,905,750.00
C Spare parts fabricated for DSC valued at… N22,811,784.36
D Losses on sales of Iron Ore Concentrate produced since GINL takeover $14,872,039.00
E Spare parts and Consumables “borrowed” from NIOMCO Not priced
Spare parts and Consumables borrowed from ASCL
i From stores $596,979.08
ii GIHL stocks procured for ASCL but transferred to DSC $1,738,405.69.
Total Naira Components N1,233,464,370
Total US$ Component $35,721,236.79

•Source: From Report of Administrative Panel of Enquiry Into the Operations of ASCL and NIOMCO, Decemeber 2007

The above is culled from the Vanguard Newspapers. The revelation is really shocking. Obasanjo said he was fighting corruption but his cronies, himself, and family members were embezzling and wasting funds while others like Tafa and Wabara were openly disgraced and dismissed from office. What do we make out of this?