Senate has exonerated former President Olusegun Obasanjo who was fingered by some Senators of allegedly frustrating the privatisation exercise, but approved the immediate sack of Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprise, BPE, Ms. Bolanle Onagoruwa.
The 45 recommendations submitted by the ad-hoc committee on BPE were adopted, yesterday, during a session chaired by Senate President, David Mark.
Mark, after the adoption of the report, said the action brought to an end the presumptions that the Senate would sweep the report under the carpet.
He said: “This is our recommendation, it is not in our place to implement the recommendations. Nobody forced us to undertake this investigation, we did it on our own, so nobody should stampede us into taking decisions.”
The report submitted to the Senate by the chairman of the committee, Senator Ahmed Lawan, indicted three former directors general of BPE, Mallam Nasir el-Rufia, Dr. Julius Bala and Mrs. Irene Chigbue
The adoption also confirms the cancellation of the sale of Daily Times Nigeria Plc, DTN, to Folio Communications Limited, as it specifically asked the National Council on Privatisation, NCP, to rescind the sale of the 140,252,900 DTN shares to Folio.
The committee’s recommendation on DTN was based on three court judgments, which had earlier stripped Folio of its shareholding in the newspaper company and affirmed that the only valid shares in the DTN are the 93,501,936 shares held by DSV Ltd and the 9, 600 shares held by various shareholders.
The report reads, “Director General of BPE, Ms. Bolanle Onagoruwa be relieved of her appointment for gross incompetence in the management of the BPE and for illegal and fraudulent sale of the 5 percent FGN residual shares in Eleme Petrochemicals Company limited.
“That Dr. Julius Bala should be investigated by the anti graft agencies for giving approval to Folio Communication Limited for the illegal sale of assets of Daily Times Nigeria Limited.
“That former Director Generals, Mallam Nasir El-Rufia, Dr. Julius Bala and Mrs. Irene Chigbue should be reprimanded by the National Council on Privatization, NCP for seeking approval directly from the President instead of the NCP as stipulated by in the public enterprise act 1999.
“That the NCP should rescind the sale of Daily Times Nigeria Plc to Folio Communication limited in keeping with court judgment.
“That anti graft agencies should work with BPE to recover the sum of £70 million of African Petroleum Plc looted by the former head Finance and Accounts, Mr. M. Ajayi and former Treasurer, Mr. Pius Idigo both formerly of the company prior to privatization in 2001.
“That the management of BPE be reorganized to make it effective and efficient and that Presidential interference in the privatization process should be avoided in future.
“That BPE should close all privatization proceeds in commercial banks and henceforth put all proceeds in privatization proceeds accounts in the Central Bank of Nigeria in compliance with section 19 (1) of the public enterprise act 1999.
“That BPE should discontinue the use of privatization proceeds to settle staff terminal benefits, consultancy fees, transaction expenses and execution of capital projects.
“That the Share Purchase Agreement of Volkswagen Nigeria Limited now VON Automobile Nigeria Limited should be rescinded for non-performance as provided in the SPA and re-advertise for sale.
“That the EFCC should immediately be drafted to investigate the economic crimes being perpetrated against the nation at VON Automobile Nigeria Limited premises in Lagos by Barbedos Ventures Limited.
“That the NCP should rescind sale of Delta Steel Company to Global Infrastructure Holdings Limited and Global Infrastructure Nigeria Limited and re-advertise for sale.
“That the federal government should implement the Inter-Ministerial Technical Audit Report on Ajoakuta Steel Complex dated July 2011 which recommended completion and commissioning of the plant by the federal government.
“That the NCP should rescind the sale of Jos Steel Rolling Mills for non-performance and re-advertise the enterprise for sale. That the federal government should ban the export of waste paper form Nigeria being raw material for paper production.
“That Nigeria Re-Insurance Plc should immediately refund the sum of N1 billion paid by BPE to the federal government being money paid by BPE on February 2007 as contribution for recapitalization with accrued interest.
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