Date Published: 11/22/09

Why Ebonyi wants NIGERCEM sale revoked

Governor Martins Elechi of Ebonyi State

Ebonyi State government has urged the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) to revoke the sale of Nigerian Cement Company (Nigercem), Nkalagu, to Eastern Bulkcem Limited (EBCL), saying Eastern Bulkcem deceived BPE by entering into an “emergency” technical partnership with Daewoo Corporation just to secure an additional import licence for bulk cement.

The state government said the failure of Daewoo to challenge Bulkcem when the later unilaterally terminated its technical partnership with the South Korean firm shortly after securing 60 percent of Nigercem’s shares, reinforced their argument that Bulkcem was never interested in rehabilitating the moribund cement factory. This, Ebonyi State government argued, ran against the grain of the federal government privatization programme.

Speaking in Abakaliki, the state capital, Dr. J. O. Ibik (SAN), who is the counsel to the state government in the judicial commission of inquiry recently set up on Nigercem by the state governor, Chief Martin Elechi, told Pointblanknews.com that the collapse of the technical partnership between Eastern Bulkcem and Daewoo had provided sufficient grounds for BPE to revoke the sale.

Ibik wondered aloud on why the technical partnership with Daewoo, which he maintained was one of the major requirements for pre-qualification by Eastern Bulkcem as a core investor for Nigercem, could so easily broke down without BPE raising eyebrows.

He said: “Eastern Bulkcem has never pretended to be manufacturers of cement. They merely baggage imported bulk cement and market the product under a brand name, eagle cement or so. It therefore flows that the main basis for the selection of Eastern Bulkcem as the core investor was in the avowed technical partner, Daewoo as a world-class cement manufacturer with tremendous experience in the product.

“Is it not a matter of great concern that EBCL broke up with Daewoo soon after taking charge of Nigercem and yet nobody has heard of the South Korean corporation going to court to challenge the termination of their partnership? It would seem that, from day one, Eastern Bulkcem had no genuine intention on Nigercem”.

He tasked BPE to investigate why Eastern Bulkcem has not taken concerted steps to revive the cement company since 2002, when it took over the management of the Nkalagu-based company. The Ebonyi state official insisted that the inability of Eastern Bulkcem to revive the cement firm clearly breached the terms of the sale.

The state counsel insisted that it would be most appropriate for BPE to nullify Eastern Bulkcem’s right to Nigercem the moment it is established that the technical partnership with Daewoo was fraudulently obtained to mislead the supervising body into the sale.  

Ibik deplored what he said was the dehumanizing treatment meted out on ex-workers of the cement company by its new owners, and called for “appropriate” legal action against Eastern Bulkcem which he said had become “very oppressive of the minority.”

It may be recalled that over a hundred workers of the premier cement factory in Nigeria have reportedly lost their lives to hardship which the workers’ union claim was occasioned by the failure of Eastern Bulkcem to settle the over nine months’ areas of salaries and entitlements owed them.