A Constitutional Lawyer and Human Rights Activist, Femi Falana, SAN has revealed that Late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua cancelled sales of Port Harcourt Refinery to Nigeria’s business mogul, Aliko Dangote for lack of due process.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said, Dangote was leading a consortium at the time and was interested in the sales of Portharcourt Refinery.
Falana was reacting to the former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s live interview on Channels Television on Wednesday where he said, a total $750 million offer was made by the Dangote-led consortium to manage the Refinery, but was declined by the then Umar Musa Yar’adu led administration.
Obasanjo revealed that the Shell Petroleum Development Company, was approached to acquire the refinery, raising concerns of corruption that could hinder the facility’s operations.
Meanwhile, Falana in a statement on Friday said, the reversal of the sales of Port Harcourt Refinery bothered on the lack of legal and ethical rules in the entire transaction.
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 consortium comprises of Bluestar Oil, a consortium comprising Dangote Oil, Zenon Oil, and Transcorp.
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 ‘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.
