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Uyo — The Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, (BPE), Mr Benjamin Dikki,
recently visited the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), to
ascertain claims of asset stripping at the plant. In this interview with
our correspondent in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, after the visit, Dikki
explains issues surrounding the claims. Excerpts.
What informed your visit to ALSCON?
We are here because we have heard a lot of information or
misinformation that this plant was being vandalized and equipment
removed. And so, it was a concern to us and we felt that we should not
allow one of our key national assets to be vandalised and be made
non-operational. That is why we embarked on this trip; to see with our
eyes, and with few personnel also coming along with us to establish the
veracity of these claims.
You have all gone round and have seen with your eyes, that all the
equipment we have seen are actually being operationalised - they are all
in functional mode. What are being moved out are scrapped and waste
products that have accumulated in the factory over a long period of time
and we have seen them. These are things that will not be useful to this
factory and in fact they are environmental hazards and should actually
be removed from the business premises as soon as it is feasible.
We will find out exactly where these rumours are coming from; whether
people are trying to agitate for issues and are trying to use this as a
medium of negotiation. We will sit down with the relevant stakeholders
and find out exactly what the problem is and see if we can resolve it.
The state House of Assembly has passed a resolution calling
on your agency to come and take over ALSCON, now that you have visited
the plant, what is your reaction?
Well, I did not go round the place alone, all of you here went round
the place; did you see any equipment that was vandalized? We have talked
to Nigerian directors, our own brothers who have a stake in this
company being alive, they are indigenes of this country and they have a
stake holding. If this plant stops production they will also lose their
jobs. So I have talked to three Nigerian directors and all of them are right
here in front of us and they have confirmed to us that there has been no
vandalisation of any equipment and we have seen with our eyes that what
are being moved out are things that cannot be used, spares parts that
are broken and cannot be used for production again and are littering the
factory premises and in fact creating an environmental problem. Like I
said we will find out the source of the rumours, may be people have
issues and they want them resolved. We will engage all the stakeholders.
How soon will the issue of inadequate gas supply be resolved?
The issue of gas supply is not restricted to ALSCON alone it is a
major challenge for even for the gas fired power plants. You know that
there are 10 NIDPs that are coming on stream. Gas has been a major
challenge, but the federal government is working towards addressing all
these issues. Out of the 1 billion dollars loan secured recently by the
federal government, a good portion of it is being reserved for the
expansion of gas infrastructures, so that we get over this issue of gas
because it is not only ALSCON that is affected, even our power plants
are affected by lack of gas supply.
We were informed that when the scraps were being removed, the
traditional ruler and the local government chairman requested for a
meeting with the management of ALSCON, but they refused to come. Why did
they turn down that meeting if there was no skeleton in their cupboard?
Well, I will not be in a position to speak for ALSCON. We first of
all wanted to inspect the factory and see with our eyes that there are
no issues of vandalisation. Like I told you, tonight we are going to
have a meeting with the relevant stakeholders, the labour union, the
communities to find out exactly what the issues are. If there are
communication gaps we will bridge the communication gaps and if there
are other more serious issues we will look at them and try to resolve
them as amicably as possible.
Is it possible for BPE to establish an independent
investigation to give a technical assessment of the plant different from
the internal directors and engineers?
I want to assure that this is not the first time such a rumour was
being spread that the plant was being vandalised. I came here myself and
a team in April when there was a rumour that the plant was being
vandalised, After that trip we set up a technical committee with members
from the federal Ministry of Mines and Solid Minerals and other experts
and they came and took a look and certified that there was no issue of
vandalisation. We only came as an advance party now to see for
ourselves.
We will send another technical team from the same ministry to come
and give us a technical assessment of the situation on ground. This is
not because we are questioning the credibility of the directors and the
engineers that are here in ALSCON. The people that are coming from the
ministry will not know better than these directors who are Nigerians
working and earning their living in this company.
They will not tell us lies or mislead us into concluding that this
factory is working when it is not working, because they have their job
and employment here, and the community also has access to free
electricity from this plant. They have schools that are being built,
they have hospitals that are being serviced by this company, so the
communities and the directors are all stakeholders and I believe we will
find out what the issues are and address them.
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