The preferred bidder of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria, BFIG Group, has accused the Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises Alex Okoh of offering it bribe in humonguous sums to drop its bid for ALSCON, 16 years after it won the bid.

The BFIG President, Chief Reuben Jaja, in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Friday alleged that BPE has been frustrated the his company’s attempts to take over ALSCON by altering the contents of the original Share Purchase Agreement from a 58-page document to 16 pages.

Chief Jaja said said the insistence by BPE for the company to sign the altered Share Purchase Agreement will fall short of addressing the gas purchase agreement which is critical to the operation of the aluminium company.

He said assigning the altered agreement is in violation of the judgement of the Supreme Court on the matter.

Recall that the Supreme Court had in a judgment of July 6, 2012 ruled that the Bureau of Public Enterprises should return ALSCON to the BFIG, an American company.

Jaja noted that despite the Supreme Court judgment compelling the BPE to handover ALSCON to BFIG, the privatization agency had blatantly refused.

He faulted the BPE’s claim that the BFIG was presented with the SPA on more than one occasion but failed to make payment.

“The document contained almost all what the BFIG agreed to as bidders at a special technical conference of all parties to the bid in 2004, including BPE and all the bidders.

“In the meeting, it was agreed that whoever emerges winners would be invited by the BPE to negotiate the SPA, after which 15 working days would be allowed for the winner to make payment.

“Immediately the BFIG received the SPA, it did not waste time to sign it. This was in October 2012. In the transmittal letter to the BPE, the BFIG requested from the BPE to provide its account coordinates to deposit the $41m initial payment.

“One month passed, the BPE did not give any response. We wrote them a reminder, still no response between October 2012 when the BFIG returned the completed SPA and January 2013.

“Later, they wrote to apologise, that they were organising so we could go and inspect the property and conduct a technical audit, so that we know what we were buying.

“When the then the BPE DG refused to change the decision, she was fired from office. After four months, all of a sudden, BPE abandoned the 58-page agreement we had signed and returned to them.”

“The new DG then came in January. His first job was to give the BFIG a brand new agreement.

“This time, only 16 pages. The BFIG reviewed this 16-page document and wondered how the BPE dropped the agreement from 58 pages approved by the Supreme Court to just 16 pages.

“In the new agreement, key attachments, including the source of gas supply, were removed. Everything that would make the BFIG successful were carefully uprooted by the BPE from the agreement.”

He said the abridged version of the SPA has worsen matters even as BFIG had already submitted the 58-page agreement to its board of directors, bankers, investors and lawyers in the United States of America.

Reacting to the allegations made by BFIG, the Director General of BPE, Mr Alex Okoh, dismissed the claims as spurious.

The BPE boss also dismissed allegation the company was bribed so as to forfeit its bid to take over ALSCON.

He said, “He has already signed the agreement as ordered by the Supreme Court. Why did he sign it if it was the wrong one?

“He signed in December last year. We have a copy of the agreement and we can show it to the press if he wants.

“The agreement he signed stipulates that he makes payment within 15 days. He has not made any payment.

“It is very unfortunate that we can allow this kind of irresponsibility from a Nigerian who has done everything to castrate such a vital national asset with no intention to change his behaviour. It is very unfortunate. I will not condone it.”

On the bribery allegation, Okoh said, “Why would I offer him money. It is ludicrous. I am the seller of the asset not a buyer. Why would I offer him money? For what? Where do I get the money to offer him and for what purpose?

“ If he has money to pay in line with the Supreme Court judgement, let him just bring the money. To try and use cheap blackmail to acquire such a strategic national asset for free or through the back door is disingenuous. It’s not going to happen.”

Recall that the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had on Tuesday 16th of December, 2019 ordered that the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Alex Okoh, to be remanded in prison for a minimum of 30 days.
Justice Anwuri Chikere, who gave the order, accused Mr Okoh of serial disobedience of the Supreme Court order on the ownership controversy of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON).