Effort by the Federal Government to comply with the Supreme Court ruling ceding the management of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria, ALSCON, in Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State to its rightful buyers, BFIG Corporation has been rebuffed by Rusal, the Russian Aluminium Company that was sacked by the apex court.
In a preliminary move to ascertain the state of the plant with a view to handing over to BFIG, the BPE informed RUSAL of its intention to carry out an assessment of the plant with a view to obtaining its status report.
The National Council on Privatisation, NCP had ordered PBE to urgently carry out the assessment and turn in the status report on the company and to submit a roadmap for resolving all the issues relating to ALSCON sale in line with the Supreme Court ruling.
The BPE immediately raised a stakeholders committee headed by Mr Emmanuel Ijewere to undertake the assessment which was slated for November 23rd 2012. BPE also intimated BFIG of the planned inspection visit to ALSCON and asked it to send in its team, prompting the company to move in a 14-man technical team drawn mostly from General Electric of the United States and some Nigerian experts in aluminium technology, led by its chairman Dr Reuben Jaja and Jimmie Williams from the US.
However when RUSAL got the BPE letter asking it to prepare for the visit which was scheduled for last Wednesday, it quickly moved to rubbish the trip by querying the Federal Government agency on the motive of the visit and why a member of BFIG, the Nigeria Police should be included in the team.
Ms Bolande Onaguruwa DG of BPE said that "We acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated November 15th 2012 which contains a list of 12 persons who are to visit the ALSCON next week. To enable us to prepare for the visit, please be kind as to communicate to us beforehand, the following the purpose of your delegation's visit to ALSCON plant, the agenda of the visit and in particular, the specific items you will like to discuss with us and whether there are persons in your delegations who are not officials of BPE."
However, RUSAL has remained defiant, saying that the Supreme Court ruling does not have anything to do with it or its stranglehold on the plant which has led to a massive depletion of the assets of the company from N127 billion in 2004 to a paltry N19 billion in 2009, according to figures at the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, which Vanguard sighted last night. The financial figures for 2010 and 2011 are not yet ready and the assets of the company could be much less going by the declining trend in recent years.
ALSCON explains court's verdict to staff;
In a memo released to the staff of the company following the Supreme Court ruling, the managing Director of ALSCON, wrote to them clarifying the meaning of the court action saying that "Neither RUSAL nor ALSCON is a party to the lawsuit. The ruling of Nigeria's Supreme Court neither changes nor can change the ownership of ALSCON. ALSCON remains part of RUSAL and RUSAL's plans to develop and transform the plant into a cutting-edge and highly technological enterprises are in progress."
