Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state has disclosed that information at his disposal showed that the Dangote Cement Factory does not actually belong to the business mogul , Alhaji Aliko Dangote
Team@orientactualmags.com learned the Kogi State Government, on Thursday, presented to the public, the report of the Specialized Technical Committee on the Evaluation of the Legality of the Alleged Acquisition of Obajana Cement Company Plc by Dangote Cement Company Limited.
The detailed report that was earlier submitted to Governor Yahaya Bello last month, was presented to the public by the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. (Mrs) Folashade Ayoade.
She submitted with supporting documents that the purported transfer of Obajana to Dangote Industries Limited was ‘invalid, null and void’.
Ayoade disclosed in the report that three Certificates of Occupancy for Obajana Cement Company Plc, which was solely owned by the Kogi State Government at the material time, were used to obtain a loan of N63billion by Dangote.
The Committee, she noted, in view of its findings, has therefore recommended that Kogi state should take steps to recover Obajana Cement Company from the Dangote Group.
Giving his remarks, Governor Yahaya Bello said he had received many petitions against the operations of the Dangote Cement factory, its ownership as well as the denial of the state its dues in the past five years.
The governor said all efforts to sit down with the owner of Dangote Conglomerate failed because Alhaji Aliko Dangote had failed to show up. Despite this, the governor said he had set up committees to look into the matter adding that the committee members made efforts to get those who claimed to be very big in the company to come and defend themselves which also did not produce desired results
Because of this, the petitioners went to the State House of Assembly to seek redress when they found that he was delaying. He also noted that every Governor, who had served before him , had faced the same challenges with Dangote to the extent that the people had alleged that maybe they had soiled their hands.
From the Technical reports before him, he claimed that the Obajana Cement now known as Dangote Cement Factory belongs to Kogi State.
Speaking further, the Governor said he had already invited Aliko Dangote to come for discussions. He however warned that ‘In case of the Billionaire’s refusal to come down, I will have no option than to execute every recommendation in this report’.
Again he warned the law enforcement agents, over their delay in executing orders given by the courts and legally constituted agencies. Yahaya Bello noted that when they delay in executing such legally issued orders, it will be tantamount to calling for anarchy and self- defence.
He noted that this was what led to agitations in the Niger Delta, South East and other places.
The State Government, he added, was not interested in shutting down Obajana Cement Factory, which in his words, is now purported to be Dangote Cement company ; ‘If there is anything, we want more of such investments. We cannot have such investments and every month, we will be waiting for envelope from Federation account’.
The state according to him had been lucky to have the late Abubakar Audu as its Governor , who because of his foresight, established the Obajana Cement Factory, did all the groundwork, acquired mining licence, the Certificate of Occupancy and ensured that the business was one hundred percent owned by the State and ran it as such before the coming of Dangote.
‘We cannot have such an organization one hundred percent, lose it one hundred percent and be at the mercy of Dangote. It is an aberration’, he said.
Governor Yahaya Bello promised to protect any investor ,who comes with clean hands , and has the interests of the state at heart’ he added- Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980. Thank you
