By Jibrin Samuel Okutepa,SAN
It is no longer news that Kogi State Government is currently having a face-off with Dangote Industries Ltd over ownership of Obajana Cement Company Plc, owner of Obajana Cement.
There is no dispute that the Government of Kogi State incorporated Obajana Cement Company Plc and entered into agreement with Dangote Industries Ltd in 2002. The Obajana Cement Company Plc is wholly owned by Kogi state Government and not Dangote Industries Limited.
The agreement between Kogi State Government and Dangote Industries Limited has surfaced on social media and it showed from the extracts duly signed by the parties that:
a. The project of Obajana Cement was at conceptual stage in 1992
b. The preliminary feasibility study was carried out in 1992
c. Obajana Cement Company Plc with Certificate of Incorporation No. RC208767 dated 4th November 1992 showed that the company is solely owned by Kogi state.
d. There evidence that the prospecting Right (Numbered PR No.14 of 2001 No.0053) was issued exclusively to the company, that is Obajana Cement Company Plc.
e. Kogi state Government offered and transferred 90% of its total shareholding in the company,that is Obajana Cement Company Plc, to Dangote Industries Limited.
f. Kogi state is at liberty to sell half of its 10% equity to indigenes of the state by public offer or private placement
g. Kogi state shall grant Dangote Industries Limited tax waivers and exemption from levies for a period of 7 years from the date of commencement of production.
Those of us from Kogi State and any reasonable person in and around kogi will see that the operations and activities of Dangote Industries Limited are being carried out in the State in those dangerous and manners too inimical to the interest of the people of Kogi State.
In terms of minning and other mineral exploration in addition to Cement production Dangote Industries Limited has been law unto itself. The communities where the company carries out its operations are at the mercy of the company. Their lands and produce are destroyed at will without compensations. The people have their water polluted and contaminated and their health absolutely in danger.
Dangote Industries Limited’s trucks drivers have many persons in Kogi State. Dangote Industries Limited’s drivers are law unto themselves. In 2010 for instance, Dangote Industries Limited’s truck driver killed my uncle in Ojodu Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State. I wrote letter to them. They saw nothing wrong. I took them to court. They came for out of court settlement. The officer who represented Dangote Industries Limited demonstrated arrogant and total disdain for human life when he said to my face that the policy of the company was that when their driver killed a person they pay only #500,000.00 to the bereaved family.
Out of anger and annoyance I to told the man that I was going kill him and I will pay his family #5million . It was after this threat that they begged the family to pay #1million to settle out of Court.
Many families have lost their breadwinners due to recklessness driving of Dangote Industries Limited drivers. In Ankpa LGA of Kogi State the harm being done to the land by the activities of Dangote Industries Limited are unquantifiable.
These and many more are too provocative to necessitate calling Dangote Industries Limited to other ever since the 2002 agreement or outrightly terminating the agreement. The Government of Kogi State has over the years watched Dangote Industries Limited breaching the 2002 agreement with impunity. The company is operating as if it own the land and the Obajana Cement Company Plc.
These provocative conduct of Dangote Industries Limited was sufficient to provoke the government to put an end to the harnful and dangerous misconduct of Dangote Industries Limited.
But in doing so we must follow due process. Kogi State House of Assembly is not a court. It cannot order the closure of the company. The government of Kogi State cannot invade the company without a valid court orders. There lies the problem. An otherwise good cause is being badly handled by Kogi state Government.
Kogi state is blessed with good lawyers. All that the state needs is to assembled crack team of lawyers to get the desired damages from Dangote Industries Limited in the name of the 2002 agreement.
Kogi state does not need to take the law into its hands. Under our constitution the powers to resolve disputes have been donated to courts by the constitution. The agreement between Kogi State Government and Dangote Industries Limited has provisions for arbitration.
Kogi state Government must follow due process and get the desires damages from Dangote Industries Limited. Unless civilised and due processes are followed, Dangote Industries Limited who from all indications has wrongly taken over Kogi State properties may at the end be compensated by the wrong mode this otherwise good cause is being handled by the Kogi State Government.
