IN what amounted to a wholesale approval of the report of its ad hoc committee that probed the Federal Government’s privatisation programme since 1999 till date, the Senate on Tuesday voted unanimously to recommend the removal of the Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprises, Ms. Bolanle Onagoruwa, from office.

The Senate also recommended that all former DGs of the BPE, including Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, Irene Chigbue and Dr. Julius Bala be reprimanded for their alleged contravention of the Privatisation Act.

But the upper legislative chamber was silent on the issue of former President Olusegun Obasanjo whom many Senators, at the consideration of the committee’s report few weeks ago, wanted to be indicted for allegedly influencing the exercise during his tenure.

Senate President, David Mark, however said after the resolution that it was not within the power of the Senate to implement the recommendations.

In a reaction on Tuesday, el-Rufai said there was no justification for recommending him for reprimand. He spoke in a statement by his Media Adviser, Mr. Muyiwa Adekeye.

El-Rufai challenged the Senate to produce any evidence to support its recommendation concerning him.

The committee headed by Senator, Ahmed Lawan, after several months of investigations, had recommended the removal of Onagoruwa from office and the reprimand of el-Rufai, Chigbue and Bala for their alleged corruption of the exercise.

In the case of Bala, the committee recommended that he be investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for his activities while in office as DG of BPE.

At the consideration of the report on the floor of the Senate, a number of senators also demanded that Obasanjo should be made to answer questions on the matter as there was evidence in the report that he interfered with the privatisation process as President.

When the recommendations were brought for approval on Tuesday, no mention was made of Obasanjo’s alleged infraction.

Mark said, “These are our recommendations and it is not our place or duty to execute or implement the recommendations. It is left for the executive to implement the recommendations.

“I hope those who have been insinuating that the Senate has been trying to avoid discussing the report now know what we can do; nobody forced us to carry out the investigation. We did it on our own and nobody made effort to stampede us. There was no time the report was withdrawn because of conflict among the senators. The Senate is one.”

The Senate also approved the recommendations “that the National Council on Privatisation should rescind the sale of Transcorp Hilton Hotel for failure of the core investor to deliver on the following fundamental provisions of the Share Purchase Agreements/Post Acquisition Plans.

“That the National Council on Privatisation should rescind the Concession Agreements of Tin Can Island Port Terminal ‘A’ to Joseph Dam Port Services Limited; Koko Port to Greenleigh Nigeria Limited; and Port Harcourt Terminal ‘B’ to BUA International Limited for non-performance and re-advertise the enterprises for sale.

“That the National Council on Privatisation should rescind the sale of ALSCON to Dayson Holdings BV and re-advertise for sale.

“That the National Council on Privatisation should rescind the sale of Delta Steel Company to Global Infrastructure Holdings Limited and Global Infrastructure Nigeria Limited and re-advertise for sale.”

It also approved the position of the committee that the sale of Daily Times Nigeria Plc to Folio Communications Limited and its Directors should be investigated by anti-graft agencies, adding that the sold assets should be recovered.

It similarly approved the recommendation that the NCP should rescind the sale of Sunti Sugar Company for non-performance and re-advertise the enterprise for sale, adding that the NCP should rescind the sale of Bacita Sugar Company for non-performance and re-advertise the enterprise for sale.

“There is no mitigation in this for him (el-Rufai) as he has not done anything to warrant a reprimand, even if he was still in the service of the BPE/NCP, which is no longer the case,”

-Punch

Posted by admin on Dec 21 2011. Filed under Lagos, Legislature, Raw Politics, Senate, Women Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry