BPE boss to be remanded in Correctional Center

The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, issued an order for the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, Alex Okoh, to be remanded in a Correctional Center for a minimum of 30 days.

The court, in the order was due his refusal to implement a 2012 judgement of the Supreme Court on the ownership dispute surrounding the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria, ALSCON,

Justice Anwuli Chikere, granting the order said that the BPE boss was guilty of disobeying valid court pronouncements.

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A notice the court served on him read: “TAKE NOTICE that this Honourable Court will be moved on the 13th day of May 2019 at the hour of 9 O’clock in the forenoon or soon thereafter as Counsel may be heard on behalf of the Applicant praying this Honourable Court for:

“AN ORDER of this Honourable Court for Committal to Prison to be made against: a. Alex Okoh, Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises; b. Bureau of Public Enterprises for disobeying and refusing to fully enforce the judgment/orders made by the Supreme Court in Appeal No. SC 12/2008 BFI Group v, BPE dated 6 July 2012 and the subsequent Enforcement Order contained in the Judgement of the Court of Appeal No. CA/A/637/2014 BPE v. BFI Group Corporation dated 11 January 2019.”

The court stressed that it was in the interest of justice for it to exercise the powers for committal, “in order to enforce the full obedience and compliance with the binding orders of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.”

The judge held that Okoh’s continued disobedience to a judgement the Supreme Court delivered on June 6, 2012, which awarded ownership of ALSCON to an indigenous firm, BFIG Corporation, was a fundamental violation of the rule of law that portrayed the federal government as lawless.

ALSCON, which is an Aluminium plant located in Ibekwe, Ikot Abasi Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, has been the subject of a protracted ownership tussle since 2004 when it was privatized by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.

BFIG Corporation had through its lawyer, Mr. Patrick Ikweato, SAN, gone to court to challenge the legality of BPE’s bidding process, especially in relation to the enforcement and crystallization of the mutually agreed Share Purchase Agreement, SPA.

The firm insisted that whereas it won the initial bid in 2004, the BPE, in controversial circumstance, cancelled the process and awarded ALSCON to a Russian firm, UC Rusal, which had also participated in the bidding procedure but was disqualified by the National Council on Privatization, NCP.

The matter was adjudicated at various courts, with the apex court, in its judgement, deciding the case against the BPE and in favour of BFIG Corporation which it declared as the rightful winner of the bidding process.

The apex court gave an order of specific performance for the enforcement of the subsisting contract between BFIG and BPE over ALSCON sale.

It specifically ordered BPE to immediately retrieve ALSCON from UC RUSAL and prepare to hand over to BFIG by issuing a mutually agreed share purchase agreement (SPA) approved at the end of negotiations in 2004.

However, despite the decision of the Supreme Court, BPE, declined to bulge, insisting on recognizing UC Rusal as the owner of ALSCON.

Consequently, BFIG Corporation, in April this year, initiated a contempt of court proceeding against the BPE DG, Okoh.

The high court had on April 10, issued a formal notice to the BPE DG, threatening to commit him to prison for his continued disobedience of the directive of the Appeal Court and the order of the Supreme Court in respect of the ownership crisis in ALSCON.