An advocacy group, Benue For Good Governance has faulted claims by the Governor of Benue State, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia that Benue Cement Company, (BCC )was sold by Senator George Akume while he was governor of the State to Aliko Dangote
The group in a press statement issued to journalists by its Director of Media, Chief John Adakolo said that the governor’s claim is a blatant lie aimed to cause damage to the person of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
A video of Governor Alia surfaced this morning where he accused Benue State Government under Senator George Akume of selling the Benue Cement Company to Aliko Dangote during time he held away as governor of the State.
According to the group, “. Alia’s claim.is false and misleading because Benue Cement Company doesn’t belong to the Benue State government. It belongs to the Federal government and it was sold under Privatization during the time Mallam Nazir El-Rufai was the Director-General for Public Enterprises.
“The record must be set that throughout the government of Akume which was between 1999 and 2007, the minority shares of Benue State government in the Benue Cement Company remained intact”
The group pressed further in the statement that it was during the administration of Senator Gabriel Suswam as governor that the remaining shares were sold, and that is the case which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC is charging him for.
The statement reads in parts: “Recall that the EFCC is presently charging Senator Suswam and his former Commissioner for Finance, Omadachi Oklobia of paying the proceeds of the sales of the remaining shares of the Benue State government in BCC to a private account of an operator of a Bureau De Change in Abuja.
“According to the EFCC, the Bureau De Change operator agreed that the sum of N3 .1 billion was paid into his account with an instruction that same should be converted to US Dollars. And during the course of investigation, the anti graft agency established before the court that the operator admitted that he took the Dollars equivalence of the N3.1b to the Maitama residence of the former governor”
Recall that Benue State’s 22.7% equity in the Benue Cement Company (BCC) was transitioned into Dangote Cement shares following a privatization and merger process, with the state government subsequently selling portions of these holdings over the years.
In 2014, the administration of former Governor Gabriel Suswam engaged advisory firm Elixir Investment Partners to sell the state’s shares but misinformed his subjects that the shares were intact until the administration of Chief Samuel Ortom uncovered the illegal sales.
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