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Again, Supreme Court sacks UC RUSAL from ALSCON


The Supreme Court has again re-validated its earlier order contained in its July 6, 2012 judgement which annulled the handing over of the multi-million dollar Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom State, to United Company RUSAL, an aluminium manufacturing and processing company based in Russia.

National Mirror gathered that in its latest unanimous ruling by a five-man panel headed by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, given on July 11 this year, the apex court dismissed the application by UC RUSAL against BFI Group Corporation (BFIG) and Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) for lack of merit.

A company, Dayson Holdings Limited, had filed the application seeking a review of the July 6, 2012 judgment of the Supreme Court annulling the controversial handing over of ALSCON to UC RUSAL by Bureau of Public Enterprises in 2006.

It would be recalled that following the privatization process, which culminated in the final bid held on June 14, 2004, BFIG had emerged as the preferred bidder, after US RUSAL was disqualified by the National Council on Privatization (NCP) for violating the bid guidelines.

Despite the Russian company’s disqualification by the supervising Council for the privatization programme, the Bureau of Public Enterprises proceeded to disqualify BFIG, allegedly for failing to meet the deadline for the payment of $41 million, being 10 per cent of the $410 million bid offered for the plant.

The Bureau subsequently reinvited UC RUSAL, earlier disqualified by the NCP, and opened negotiations on how to hand over ALSCON to it.

In addition to the earlier ruling by the apex court, the House of Representatives Committee on Privatization and Commercialization, at the end of a public hearing on the non-implementation of the Supreme Court ruling, urged BPE to comply with the rule of law and take steps to take control of ALSCON from UC RUSAL.

Prior to the latest ruling of the Supreme Court, the House of Representatives Committee on Privatization and Commercialization on May 2016 again reaffirmed its previous resolution urging BPE to respect and enforce the Supreme Court ruling.

Consequently, on May 2016 the Bureau convened a meeting with the Chairman/Chief Executive of BFIG, Reuben Jaja, to discuss the implementation of the ruling.

During the meeting, both parties agreed that BFIG would pay $41 million, being 10 per cent of the offer price of $410 million for ALSCON with 15 working days after the execution of the May 20, 2004 mutually agreed share purchase agreement (SPA).

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