A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has claimed that former President Umaru Yar’Adua cancelled the sale of the Port Harcourt Refinery to a consortium led by business mogul, Aliko Dangote, because it didn’t follow due process.
Recall that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had in an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday said that in 2007, an offer of $750 million was made by the consortium to manage both the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries but was rejected by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company.
During the interview, Obasanjo disclosed that the Shell Petroleum Development Company, when approached to acquire the refinery, had raised concerns regarding corruption that could hinder the facility’s operations.
However, in a statement on Friday, Falana said the sale reversal was a critical step to address the legal and ethical breaches surrounding the transaction and to protect Nigeria’s national interest.
He explained that under the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act, the Vice President is the chairman of the National Council on Privatisation, the body responsible for overseeing the privatisation of public enterprises.
Falana alleged that Obasanjo bypassed this legal requirement by sidelining then-Vice President Atiku Abubakar and directly managing the privatisation of several state-owned enterprises.
The lawyer said the Bluestar consortium was comprised of Dangote Oil, Zenon Oil, and Transcorp Plc.
The statement reads, “Under the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act, the Vice President is the chairman of the National Council on Privatisation, a body that is charged with overseeing the privatisation and commercialisation of public enterprises.
“In utter breach of the Act, President Olusegun Obasanjo sidelined Vice President Atiku Abubakar and took over the privatisation of a number of public enterprises.
“Before the deal, President Obasanjo had acquired large shares in Transcorp through a ‘blind trust’.
“Many interest groups in the country questioned the legal validity and moral propriety of the sales as they were consummated in the last days of the Obasanjo Administration.
“On May 17, 2007, President Obasanjo sold a 51% stake in the Port Harcourt Refinery to Bluestar Oil for US$561 million. In another transaction that took place on May 28, 2007, President Obasanjo sold 51% shares in Kaduna Refinery to Bluestar Oil for $160 million.”
Falana stated that key stakeholders, including the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and other unions criticised the proposed sale and raised concerns over due process.
“They also alleged that the nation had been shortchanged as the shares acquired in the Port Harcourt Refinery for $516 million were worth US$5 billion. Convinced that the deals were not in the national interest, both unions proceeded on a four-day strike that almost paralysed the Nigerian economy in June 2007.
“The unions ended their strike after receiving assurances from the Federal Government that the deals would be thoroughly investigated. Following the probe, President Yar’Adua annulled the privatisation of both the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries.
“It is on record that the cancellation of the privatisation was not challenged in any court as it was carried out contrary to the letter and spirit of the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act,” the statement added.
