$400,000 bribe pitches BUA Group against Aondoakaa

Aondoakaa

Tempers are flaring between the chairman of BUA Group, Alhaji AbdulSamad Rabiu and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, over the failure of the minister to deliver on a “deal” to ensnare President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua into revoking the sale of Delta Steel Company to Global Steel Holdings, to pave way for the company’s eventual acquisition by BUA Group.

The “deal”, which according to sources close to the Attorney-General, was sealed in November 2008, involved Rabiu parting with the sum of $400,000 to enable Aondoakaa pen a memo “advising” Yar’Adua on why the lack of “due process and transparency in the sale of Delta Steel to Global Steel Holdings Limited (GSH) during the Obasanjo administration, necessitated a review of the process” in line with Yar’Adua’s “Rule of Law” hymn.

Aondoakaa had reportedly assured AbdulSamad that, apart from being a local company which met all the requirements by the Bureau for Public Enterprises, which consummated the sale, BUA Group’s chances of wrenching Delta Steel Company from the clutches of the Indian-promoted Global Steel Holdings were heightened by the fact that AbdulSalmad is of the same ethnic stock and religion as President Yar’Adua. Convincing the President to hand over Delta Steel to BUA Group, Aondoakaa reportedly swanked, would be “as easy as A,B,C.”

“After we settled for $400,000, Oga (Aondoakaa), as usual, sent his man (Mr.) Terry Waya to AbdulSamad to take delivery of the money. But some of us didn’t feel comfortable because we had unresolved issues with the same Global Steel we were seeking to hound out of Delta Steel Company. We had yet to deliver on our promise to re-secure Ajaokuta Steel for them after the millions of dollars we squeezed out of them,” the source told Pointblanknews.com

AbdulSamad, Pointblanknews.com gathered, is so unsettled by the realization that, four clear months after parting with $400,000 to make the Nigerian government reverse the sale of the steel plant, Delta Steel Company remains in the vice-grip of BUA Group’s arch rival, Global Steel Holdings. What is more, BUA Group have yet to see any tell tale signs that the Nigerian government, of which Aondoakaa is Attorney-General, is in any mood close to wrestling Delta Steel Company from the claws of Global Steel Holdings.

In 2004, Global Steel, which had earlier won a 10-year concession on Ajaokuta Steel Company over Solgas, bought the 1.3million tonnes-a-year Delta Steel Company for $30 million. BUA Group lost out in the sale, even though it offered $31 million for an 80 per cent stake in Delta Steel and was initially named preferred bidder at an auction in Abuja. The deal was cancelled weeks after and the mill handed over to GSHL, which was not part of the bidding process.

The House of Representatives had lent its voice to the calls for the cancellation of the sale of Delta Steel Company to Global Steel Holdings, and urged the Executive arm to consider the “local bidder” BUA Group.

Ironically, the Yar’Adua cancelled the Ajaokuta sale to GSH, prompting the company with Indian roots to pursue legal and political options. It was the pursuit of the “political option” that forced Global Steel Holdings into handing a $6 million bribe to Aondoakaa in June last year, “to enable him talk First Lady Turai Yar’Adua into persuading her husband to allow Global Steel Holdings continue with Ajaokuta Steel Company.”

While it is unclear why Aondoakaa took money from Global Steel Holdings to “help” the company retain Ajaokuta Steel, and, on the other hand, was working with BUA Group, a rival company, to frustrate Global Steel out of Delta Steel, sources close to the minister hinted that Aondoakaa may have decided on this strategy after Global Steel Holdings began mounting pressure on him to “either refund the $6 million or deliver.” For such impudence, “Oga decided to teach those Indians a bitter lesson,” the source offered.

Pointblanknews.com had exclusively reported that Global Steel Holdings was at Aondoakaa’s jugular to refund the $6 million bribe he collected from the company at the Park lane, London Hilton Hotel, mid last year, to “help convince” Yar’Adua to reverse the revocation of the sale of the Ajaokuta Steel Company (ASC) to Global Steel by the Obasanjo administration.

AbdulSamad, scion of the 81-year old businessman, Alhaji Ishyaku Rabiu, a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is sibling to Rabiu. Rabiu, owner of IRS Airlines, and is said to be complaining aloud on the misfortune of losing $400,000 to Aondoakaa and his Tiv “brother,” Terry Waya.

The businessman, who also owns BUA Sugar Refinery, Nigeria’s second largest sugar refinery, and a 3000 metric tonne-per-day cement bagging plant built on a floating vessel MV BUA, among other business interests, is said to be exploring options to make Aondoakaa “cough” out the $400,000, particularly as he is now believed to have been convinced that the Attorney-General is “double-dealing.”

Apart from Aondoakaa, Terry Waya has had his fair share of scandal involving money. The suave Tiv businessman grabbed the headlines in 2001, when scores of serving Nigerian governors reportedly jetted to London, to celebrate the 40 th birthday of the controversial businessman, who reportedly cut his teeth under the Chagourys.

Following the arrest in London of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha on suspicion of money laundering in 2005, Waya again stirred the pool of controversy when he offered to pay £500,000 bail security on behalf of Alamieyeseigha. This prompted enquiries by the Met Police about Waya’s finances, forcing the bank to close his account.

Waya was charged with two counts of obtaining money transfers by deception on September 11, 2006. He was found guilty of obtaining money transfers by deception in relation to a mortgage of £465,000 with G.E. money to buy his London property at 18A Northgate, Prince Albert Road, London. He was said to have given false information in his application about his status, his current employment, date of birth and other details. On 7th August 2007, he was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court and received 80 hours community service order.

In January 2008, Waya again grabbed the headlines as he was ordered to pay a £1,540,000 confiscation order at the Southwark Crown Court in London, as the benefit of "his criminal activities," and which the court held represents the current value of his London property, in addition to a fine of £5,000 being prosecution fees.

Waya, who also reportedly fronts for the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri, was last November “arrested” by the Commission. His arrest was believed to be connected with the complaint lodged by Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, to President Yar’Adua, that Waya had been blackmailing him to “settle madam” (Farida Waziri) or that EFCC would begin work on the petitions before it against Amaechi.

“You see the double standards? We arrested Waya when madam appeared to be in the mess she put herself in. Nigerians have not asked what became of Waya’s arrest. But as a face-saving measure, EFCC has been “prosecuting” the Rivers case with fervor, while Waya has been set as free as the air, to resume fronting for madam and the Attorney-General”, a source close to the Commission declared.