Despite the claim by the Bureau of Public Enterprises about its plans to reopen the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria , Ikot Abasi, for normal operations; a PREMIUM TIMES investigation has shown that the move may not materialise soon.
Lagos lawyer and senior advocate of Nigeria , Femi Falana, told PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday that all actions by the BPE on ALSCON are illegal because they are in disobedience of the Supreme Court judgment of July 6, 2012. Also, the Executive Vice President/General Counsel of BFIG, Jimmie Williams, said the latest Appeal Court ruling re-establishes the said Supreme Court judgment, as a basis for the resolution of the ALSCON crisis.
“The balance of 90 per cent of the bid price shall be paid within 90 calendar days as ordered by the Supreme Court,” he said in his judgment. Others are List of Intellectual Property of ALSCON; List of Material Contracts of ALSCON; List of Banks of ALSCON; List of Government Authorities of ALSCON of ALSCON; Exhibit No. 1: Natural Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement; Exhibit 3: Federal Republic of Nigeria Officials Gazette, and Exhibit 4: Power of Attorney.The Supreme Court had ordered BPE to present the mutually agreed SPA of 2004 to BFIG for execution.
However, BPE ignored the Supreme Court order that the plant be retrieved from the Russians and handed over to the preferred bidder and winner of the bid.. From about $1.1billion in 2004, BFIG said ALSCON’s assets valuation dropped to about $0.94 million , citing figures in the KPMG’s audited financial accounts for December 31, 2011.