By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

The controversy over the 2004 sale of the Aluminum Smelting Company of Nigeria, ALSCON, Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State, resonated yesterday as the original Preferred Bidder in the privatisation process, BFIGroup of America insisted that BPE fraudulently sold the company to RUSAL against its own rules.

In a document circulated among media houses in Abuja, BFIGroup headed by a Nigerian-American Dr. Reuben Jaja alleged that the government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo had predetermined to sell ALSCON to RUSAL and that it only used the American firm to create a semblance of a genuine privatization process.

According to the California-based organization, “RUSAL failed to provide a required $1 million bid bond complying with Government rules for participating in the ALSCON bid process, yet RUSAL was still allowed to bid

BFIGroup fully complied with the Government’s strict bid bond requirements as a contractual precondition for bidding and on national television officially requested a certificate of RUSAL’s compliance.

The Government denied BFIGroup’s repeated requests in this regard.  No complying RUSAL bid bond was produced because none exists.

The Government in public announcements steadfastly and overwhelmingly favored RUSAL despite its noncompliance with bid rules and inferior conditional bid terms, while BFIGroup bid unconditionally in accordance with the bidding rules of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

RUSAL has been consistently favored by the Government over many months, having submitted a conditional bid price of just $5 million with an additional $200 million to be paid over 20 years or by 2025, while BFIGroup was coerced to by the Government to bid against itself to increase its initial bid from $280 million to $410 million.

The Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatisation, NCP, had initially disqualified RUSAL at the financial bid opening, June 14, 2004, over its conditional bid.

In fact, the Russians were said to be preparing to leave the country when a directive from the then presidency made the then Minister of Power, Sen. Liyel Imoke, current Cross River State Governor, whose ministry was supervising ALSCON,  to invite them for negotiations.

Dr. Jaja’s group made spirited efforts to get the Nigerian government to respect its own rules but to no avail. Neither the National Assembly nor the courts could help him as RUSAL which was said to be acting on behalf of a very influential Nigerian traditional ruler was given the company, in spite of several protests.

However, the Bureau of Public Enterprises said in reaction that BFIGroup was denied ALSCON because it failed to meet the deadline for the payment of the initial 10 per cent bid price within the 15 working-day stipulation.