The Nation Newspaper

Tag: revocation

  • Trade fair complex: ‘Revocation’ll discourage investors’

    Reactions have continued to trail the purported revocation of the concession of the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex on Mile 2-Badagary Expressway, Lagos which Aulic Nigeria Limited won in 2007 under the Federal Government’s Privatisation programme.

    Aulic Nigeria Limited bidded for and won the concession of the complex for N40 billion in 30 years. The area Aulic won as the concessionaire was 322 hectares of land.

    Senate Ad-hoc Committee Chairman, Senator Solomon Adeola asked the Senate to summon the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Idris and the Director-General of the Directorate of State Security (DSS), Daura to assist the Ministry of Commerce and Investment as well as the BPE to eject Aulic Nigeria Limited and recover about N6.5 billion accrued revenue over a nine-year period from the company.

    Reacting to the allegation, the concessionaire, Aulic Nigeria Limited, has said the claim was a tissue of lies. It, therefore, urged the police and the DSS to disregard Senator Adeola’s advice  with regards to its ejection from the complex. It maintained that there was no N6.5 billion accrued revenue to recover in the agreement it signed with the BPE in 2007.

    However, Company Secretary and Counsel to Aulic Nigeria Limited, Mr. Dan Udeh said Aulic was not indebted to anybody.

    He said: “Nigeria wants to make its economy grow by encouraging partnerships with local and international stakeholders. If it takes decisions that are inimical to business, it will lose those who have shown interest in developing her economy. How fair is it to allow its citizen to manage one of its assets in a concession agreement of N40b for 30 years and wants to terminate the same concession after nine years, using non-remittance of money to Federal Government as subterfuge?

    “The Federal Government agreed to hand over the entire 322 hectares of land that comprises the complex, but it actually handed over less than 20 per cent of the area under agreement and it wants Aulic to pay for rents it never collected. It is against the logic of fairness.”

    The Company Secretary maintained that Aulic Nigeria Limited as a concessionaire should be encouraged instead of being vilified.

    Udeh regretted that money traders should have paid to Aulic as the concessionaire to enable him remit money to the Federal Government was not paid to the company.

    He said: “Under the concession agreement, all monies paid to government should have been paid to Aulic, which will then fulfill its final obligation to government. The traders’ associations have never paid to Aulic and they keep saying we owe N40 billion.”

    Udeh said he understood that NCP has invited bids for the trade fair complex; even as he warned any person or group interested in bidding for the said complex to desist from doing so or purchase a cylinder of litigations.

    “This is because it will be foolhardy for any sane person or group to buy a property whose case is still pending in the law court.

    “Again, the concession process had an international posture because many international groups were involved in the process as partners. Any further harassment or intimidation may warrant seeking justice in the International Court of Justice.”

  • Revocation of Lagos Trade Fair Complex concession

    SIR: The once burgeoning   has been in the news lately for the wrong reasons. It is apt to address the dog whistle campaigns that have emerged in the wake of the recent revocation of the concession of LITFC granted to Aulic Nigeria Limited by the Federal Government.

    At its meeting of August 22 and 23, the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, revoked the concession of Lagos International Trade Fair Complex (LITFC) to Aulic Nigeria Limited and ordered the secretariat of Bureau of Public Enterprises to commence another privatisation exercise that will lead to the emergence of another concessionaire.  Professor Nick Ezeh, the promoter and chairman of Aulic Nigeria Limited has raised concerns and pushed misleading information over the revocation in the media.

    The Federal Government had to intervene because it could not afford to allow a key national asset to deteriorate in the manner that it has since Aulic Group took over as concessionaire.

    The NCP approved the concession of LITFC in 2007 to Aulic (the concessionaire). The concession of the 322 hectares of land in LITFC was given at a lease fee of N40 billion to be paid over 30 years. The Agreement was signed with Aulic Nigeria Limited on June 29, 2007. Aulic Nigeria Limited paid an entry fee of N200 million in 2008 and the sum of N12, 731,000.00 for the moveable assets. Since then, the company has not paid any additional fees to government, even though it took over the complex nine years ago.

    It is true that the entire complex could not be handed over to Aulic Group owing to resistance by the Traders’ Associations that had subsisting leases and the fact that Parcel B was not available for practical handover.

    However, the NCP, in January 2013, took some major decisions to address the concession challenges, including a facility audit of the assets and tenants at the complex as a prelude to excising the contentious portions of the concession areas occupied by the Traders’ Associations, places of religious worships and Parcel B. The key part of the NCP intervention was that the concession contract was to be renegotiated for a new lease fee to reflect the new area.

    Despite participating in the process that gave rise to the NCP’s decisions, Aulic Nigeria Limited immediately stalled the implementation of the decisions via a petition to the House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation and filing of a lawsuit.

    In revoking the concession, the NCP noted that the concessionaire had no standard management team in place and therefore, its corporate governance standard was very weak. Council lamented that Aulic Nigeria Ltd had made the implementation of the former’s decisions impossible while making money from illegal leases without any effort to pay the annual lease fees to the federal government since it took over the complex in 2007. It is apt to point out that the concessionaire is currently indebted to the federal government to the tune of N6, 542,172,000.

    It must be noted that the Bureau of Public Enterprises, which serves as the secretariat of NCP, has handled concessions at Nigerian ports and most of the port concessionaries are doing very well and are paying their lease fees. Why is that of LITFC different?

     

    • Sisaa Agboh,

    Bureau of Public Enterprises, Abuja.

  • Senate seeks revocation of N3.2b Benue road contract

    The Senate Committee on Works has asked the Federal Government to revoke the N3.2 billion contract for the reconstruction of Wannue-Yadev road in Benue, citing alleged incompetence by the handler.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 19-kilometre road contract, awarded in 2013, had a completion period of 24 months.

    Its chairman, Sen. Kabiru Gaya, told reporters in Gboko that his committee was “greatly disappointed” that not much had been achieved in the execution of the project four years after it was awarded.

    “We have gone round portions of the road; we have asked questions and made observations. Our conclusion is that the contractor lacks the capacity to handle the job.

    “We have resolved to ask the Federal Government to terminate the job and engage a competent firm. Huge monies have been paid to the contractor with nothing to show for it. We cannot continue like that,” he said.

    Gaya regretted that the contractor had failed to live up to expectations, “despite letters asking him to sit up”.

    “At some spots on the road, asphalt was being laid without leveling the affected areas; the contractor also scrapped large portions of the road last year and disappeared, making them impassable. We feel that this is being insensitive.

    “The point we are trying to make is simple. Since the Federal Ministry of Works has written three times threatening to revoke the contract, the job should be terminated. We shall investigate it and hand over the report to EFCC.

    “It is not right to allow contractors collect tax payers’ money and waste it,” he said.

    Sen. George Akume (APC, Benue North-West), who also spoke to reporters, decried the state of federal roads in Benue.

    He claimed that cement dealers, who plied the Gboko/Makurdi road with heavy loads, were responsible for most of the massive damage and should be made to assist in reconstruction.

  • Expert seeks revocation of N50 stamp duty levy

    Expert seeks revocation of N50 stamp duty levy

    Worried by what he described as the growing level of transparency in the system, a financial analyst, Oluseun Onigbinde, who is also the Co-founder and Team Lead of interactive financial platform, BudgIT Nigeria has urged Nigerians to express displeasure over the N50 stamp duty levy of the Federal Government considering the effect the law would have on the finances of the common man.

    Onigbinde said this during a seminar with the organisation’s consultants from 13 states in conjunction with a number of civil society organisations to keep abreast of happenings with Nigeria’s budget in Abuja.

    According to him, “The law says that there must be stamp duties and the High Court reinforces that. That is good. Understandably, we need to raise non oil revenue. However, this law favours only those in government and their interests.”

    Expatiating, Onigbinde said: “Strangely, people are not demanding accountability from those in government. People are not asking questions, demanding accountability or anything of sort from government. Perhaps, when it hits Nigerians that for every deposit, no matter how small, they will be charged N50, then they will understand the import of the law.”

  • Erratic power: PENGASSAN urges revocation of firms’ licences

    Erratic power: PENGASSAN urges revocation of firms’ licences

    Labour has urged new investors in the electricity sector to provide light to Nigerians or have their licences revoked.

    Speaking at the opening ceremony of the fourth Triennial National Delegates Conference of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), in Abuja, the National President, Comrade Babatunde Ogun, lamented the abysmal state of electricity supply since the sector was privatised in November last year.

    He said: “All the distribution and generating companies have not shown enough readiness to invest in improving electricity supply in the country.”

    It would be recalled that the nation’s electricity supply which stood at over 4,000 mega watts (Mw) before privatisation, was recently reported to have dropped to below 2,000 megawatts.

    Ogun  said the companies have continued with their dubious regime of billing customers for electricity not consumed.

    Although he commended the efforts of the regime in improving power supply in the country, the labour leader said it was high time the new power firms started work and live up to the expectations of Nigerians.

    He said: “This nation can never have any meaningful development without power. Nigerians are getting impatient with excuses: please give us efficient and regular power to drive the economy.”

    Ogun, who condemned Federal Government’s lackadaisical  approach at fighting corruption, noted that the scourge was responsible for most of the systemic failure in the country.

    He said corruption is endemic in the country and has equally eaten into every fabric of the society.

    “Corruption has not only impinged on the nation’s economy but also battered our image among committee of nations. The actions of the Federal Government do not appear to engender confidence from the Nigerian people on the sincerity of the government in the fight against corruption,” he said.

    Ogun criticised the government for its inability to create tangible jobs in the country.

    He said the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) has failed to make any meaningful impact due to poor funding.

    In his address, the Minister of Labour and Productivity , Chief Emeka Wogu said  the Federal Government is sensitive to the plight of all Nigerians, including workers.

    He explained that the government transformation agenda is aimed at restructuring and re- modelling Nigeria as a giant economy ranking at least the 20th Economy by 2020.

    Wogu said the funds that have accrued to the country from the 2012 subsidy removal have been marshaled into the SURE-P.

    He said the programme has empowered 119, 000 women and youth by creating 3,000 jobs, per state, and the FCT. He said the programme was building eight skills development centres, public works, agriculture, tourism, and ICT programmes that will add value to the lives of the youths in the country.

    The two-day conference, which has as its theme: “Repositioning the Nigeria oil and gas industry: Possibilities and realities,” will climax with the election of new executives of the association.

  • ABSU and the revocation of Kalu’s certificate

    ABSU and the revocation of Kalu’s certificate

    The recent revocation of the degree certificate of the former Abia State governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu by the authorities of Abia State University Uturu, Abia State was not the first of its kind in the country. Before now some universities had after many years of graduation revoked the degree certificates of people whom they discovered that the award of such degrees contravened the laid down procedures for admission and graduation from the universities.

    The university, like any other academic institutions, has the right to revoke the certificate awarded to people, whenever it was discovered that they were wrongly awarded. Nothing stops the authorities from taking such action; not even the number of years such certificates have been awarded. So there is no sentiment in the issuance and revocation of certificate awarded by any institution because every institution has a well laid down law, procedures, rules and regulations guiding admission, academic, non-academic curriculum and graduation from the institution which is being handed over to applicants upon admission.

    Recently, the West African Examination Council (WAEC), after four years, cancelled the certificates of about 200 persons who sat for their examination at Ogudu Senior Grammar School Ojudu GRA Ojota Lagos after discovering that there were irregularities in the award of the certificates. Some of the affected persons are in their final year in universities and the heaven did not fall. What matters most is that the onus lies on the affected persons to prove the authority wrong by providing substantial evidence before the court that the certificates were not wrongly awarded to them. Many had fought such battles in the past. While some lost, others with incontrovertible evidence to substantiate their cases won them.

    As for the case of Kalu and Abia State University authority, the ball is in Kalu’s court to prove the authority wrong by providing substantial evidence before the court to show that he was properly admitted and that he graduated from the university, while in office as governor of the state and visitor to the university.

    Trying to link the revocation to political victimisation by the state government is puerile because the university is made up of renowned professors and academics who are not politicians and who know the implications of revoking a degree after many years of awarding it. Unless Kalu wants the world to believe that he arm-twisted the university authority to award him the degree while in office as the governor even when he knew he did not merit such, he should come clean with the transcript issued to him by the University of Maiduguri which he used for inter-university transfer into the Abia State University and even the O’ level certificate he used to secure admission into the University of Maiduguri in the first place.

    So many things are at stake in this situation that need to be cleared by Kalu if he wants Nigerians to believe him that he is being victimised by the university authority. The university authority in their various advertorials had justified their action based on the law that established the university academic programme; the onus is now on Kalu to prove otherwise. University degree is not a common product that could be easily purchased. It takes time, resources, discipline and hard work for one to acquire it.

    It could be recall that in 2002 when the news broke that Kalu was writing degree examination in Abia State University, Olusegun Adeniyi, the then editor of Thisday wrote an article on the back page of the newspaper titled “Eze Goes To School” where he raised a lot of questions on the propriety of Kalu being a student of ABSU, writing degree examination and at the same time serving as the governor of the state and visitor to the university.

    Adeniyi in the article had asked some pertinent questions such as when Kalu was admitted into the university, his choice of the state university and what time did he has as a governor to attend lectures, even on part-time basis if it is assumed that he was admitted as a part time student. Not many Nigerians took Adeniyi’s fears then very serious, rather he was attacked by Kalu’s media aides.

    From the way the saga is unfolding today, it appears that Adeniyi and other Nigerians who saw the development from his perspectives might be vindicated at the end of the day, unless something otherwise happens to prove the university authority wrong. Accusing the state government of inciting the university to revoke his certificate is nothing but shadow chasing. The situation goes beyond Kalu’s political differences with any body. It is academic matter that should be sorted out academically and legally, not politically.

    Before now prominent Nigerians who were accused of forging certificates or illegally acquiring certificates in the past have taken the matters to court to clear their names. Former Kogi State Governor Ibrahim Idris was once accused of not having school certificate, while being admitted as a law student at University of Abuja. His lawyers took the matter to court and WAEC officials were in court to testify that he obtained a school certificate from a secondary school in Bayelsa State many years ago. Such allegation of certificate forgery was also leveled against Governor Gabriel Suswan of Benue State. Today, Suswan has won the case at High court and the Appeal Court and is ready to meet his accuser at the Supreme Court.

    Kalu and his sympathisers should stop pointing accusing fingers at anybody or group as being responsible for the certificate saga. Rather, they should face the reality by doing everything to clear his name from the mess if he is sure of the genuineness of his admission and graduation from the university. Any other thing contrary is bunkum; not even Barrister Amobi Nzelu’s recent claim that he wanted to go to court for Kalu but was discouraged by a Professor from the university who said it was not necessary. How will Nzelu expect Nigerians to fall for such gimmicks? Or is it that Kalu has no evidence to upturn his revoked degree certificate in court?

    So if Kalu is not sure of himself and does not have enough evidence to challenge the decision in court, he and his allies should keep quiet and accept the decision in good faith. Meanwhile, all eyes are on Kalu to respond to the university’s decision by taking urgent action to redeem his battered image.

    • Dr. Ozoubi wrote Bwari Abuja