Business

Kogi govt: We own Obajana Cement, not Dangote

The Kogi State Government, on Thursday, said Obajana Cement is owned by the state and not Dangote Industries Limited as earlier claimed by the company.

The state government said the Obajana Cement was solely founded in 1992 and owned by the state, which it said held 100 per cent of its shareholding in trust for its people, long before Dangote Group ventured into the state and before Dangote Cement Plc came into existence.

The Kogi State Government, in a statement made available to The Star on Thursday, noted that successive administrations had always invited Dangote Industries Limited and Dangote Cement Plc to prove that the Group paid nothing for the purported acquisition of Obajana and its alleged 100 per cent ownership, “but each time, DIL and DCP have woefully failed to do so”.

Th state government added that it took a loan of at least 15 million Deutsche Marks to conduct feasibility assessments, which confirmed the existence of those ‘vast limestone deposits’ that DIL found enticing years later.

“Sadly, for over a decade after DIL and DCP started posting profits from the operations of the Obajana plant, the Kogi State Government was still labouring to pay off the said loan and interests accruing thereon,” the government said..

The Kogi State Government stated that “in the interest of humanity and truth, it was pertinent to ask the questions: ‘How come years after DIL and DCP claim they acquired 100 per cent of the equity and assets of Obajana Cement Plc, Kogi State officials were still listed as shareholders of the company, holding shares for and on behalf of the people of Kogi State in filings made by DIL and DCP at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)?’

“Is the above not evidence that DIL and DCP which do not deny that Kogi State invited them to invest in Obajana Cement Plc in the first place, are lying when they defend their rapacity and duplicity by claiming that Kogi State allegedly abandoned her allotted shares and was subsequently kicked out of the company she founded by them, thereby allegedly extinguishing all rights and interests of Kogi State and her people in the operations of the company?

“By what rules of corporate acquisitions or even buy-outs are DIL and DCP operating in their highhanded dealings with Kogi State and people? At what point was DIL and DCP able to raise money and Kogi State Govt not able to raise money to take up their allotments, resulting in the alleged transfer of Kogi’s shares in Obajana to DIL/DCP?

“Which money or consideration did DIL provide in 2002 for the alleged acquisition of the 90 per cent equity in Obajana Cement Plc, which used to be vested in the Kogi State Government and what money or consideration did DIL and DCP pay in 2003 to acquire the remaining 10 per cent of Kogi’s shares in Obajana Cement Plc?”

“The state government invited Nigerians and all persons of goodwill everywhere to ruminate on the issues raised and draw conclusions on the ways and manner in which DIL and DCP have shamelessly gone about their conspiracy to dispossess Kogi State and her people of their rightful assets,” the statement read.

The Star