After its immediate past Director-General, Alex Okoh, was convicted and fined N10m by the Supreme Court for contempt, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) will today begin a two-day visit to the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), in Ikot Abasi to assess the current state of the plant.
The two-day visit, which is expected to continue tomorrow, is part of the process approved by the National Council on Privatization (NCP) to finally commence the enforcement of the July 6, 2012 order of the Supreme Court of the ownership of the $3.2bn aluminium smelter plant.
Background
After the attempt by the Federal Government to sell 77.5 percent of its shares in the company in 2004 ended in a protracted dispute that continued to the Supreme Court, the BPE handed over the management and control of the plant to UC RUSAL.
On July 6, 2012, the Supreme Court in a unanimous ruling gave an order of specific performance for BPE to rescind its controversial cancellation of the NCP’s declaration of the Nigerian-American consortium, BFIGroup, as the winner and preferred bidder for ALSCON since June 2004.
The apex court also ordered BPE to retrieve the management the plant from UC RUSAL and hand over to the BFIGroup.
Contempt charge
But the refusal of BPE to comply with the order of the Supreme Court resulted in the initiation of contempt proceedings in April 2019 against it and its Director General, Alex Okoh.
On December 17, 2019, the Federal High Court, Abuja presided by Justice Anwuri Chikere ruled that Okoh should be sent to jail for failure to cause BPE to fully execute the judgments of both the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal regarding the unilateral cancellation of the outcome of the 2004 bid for ALSCON.
Although BPE appealed against the ruling, the Appeal Court in a unanimous verdict upheld the order.
The appeal by BPE to the Appeal Court’s ruling was on January 26, 2024 affirmed by the Supreme Court in a unanimous ruling read by Justice Tijjani Abubakar on behalf of the five-member panel.
The apex Court declared that BPE’s appeal was “totally lacking in merit and therefore deserved to be dismissed.” The court did not only dismiss the appeal and affirm the verdict of the Appeal Court, it imposed a cost of N10m against BPE and Okoh. The N10m cost, the Supreme Court declared must be paid personally by Okoh in addition to going to prison for contempt.
The Supreme Court sustained Okoh’s conviction and sentencing to 30 days in prison for contempt as a result of his serial disobedience of the court order, in addition to a fine for N10m to be paid personally by him.
Okoh appeal
On March 12, 2024, Okoh approached the Federal High Court in Abuja to seek for the variation of the Supreme Court judgment on compassionate grounds.
His application was based on the plea that having already paid, personally, the N10m fine imposed on him as directed by the Supreme Court, and having been removed from office on January 8, 2024 by President Bola Tinubu, and would not be in any position to continue to interfere in the ALSCON transaction, he should be spared the double jeopardy of still going to jail for 30 days.
Based on his appeal, the court reviewed the request and ruled that having paid the N10m fine for contempt, Okoh’s jail sentence should be waived.
Despite the variation of the Supreme Court’s judgment against Okoh, the High Court presided by Justice D.U. Okorowo insisted that “BPE are duty bound to continue to fully abide by the order handed down by the Supreme Court in appeal number SC/12/2004.” By implication, the court said despite the waiver of the jail sentence, Okoh’s conviction by Supreme Court for contempt subsists with the payment of N10m fine.
Alleged asset stripping
Since the handing over of the plant in 2006 to UC RUSAL, allegations of massive asset stripping and vandalism of the component parts have always trailed the management of the plant.
Experts have said the valuation of the plant might have gone down significantly as current state of the plant may not be the same as it was when investors were invited to bid for the acquisition of the plant in 2004.
The visit is therefore to commence the preliminary assessment of the state of the plant prior to the formal handing over to the winner of the bid in 2004 declared by the NCP and affirmed by the Supreme Court.
A familiar move
The latest move by the BPE to commence the enforcement of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the sale of ALSCON is not the first since the crisis began in 2004.
In October 2017, a similar move was made when the then Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Kayode Fayemi, announced that the Federal Government was ready resolve the over 20-year-old crisis over the sale of ALSCON.
As part of the process to resolve the crisis, a joint technical team consisting representatives of all the parties in the ALSCON transaction dispute were scheduled to visit the plant to assess the current state of its component parts, units and other operational facilities.
However, after BFIGroup mobilised and assembled its technical team into the country, the visit was cancelled at the last minute by BPE.
BFIGroup speaks
In a brief telephone chat with our reporter on Monday, the President of BFIGroup, Alabo Reuben Jaja, said the visit to ALSCON is part of the plan towards the takeover by BFIGroup pursuant to NCP’s decision to finally enforce the Supreme Court judgment.
