THE federal Government may begin the process of probing activities at the Nigerian Coal Mining Corporation, Enugu, as a result of circumstances surrounding the disposal of most of the assets by the Bureau of Public Enterprises on the advice of the consultants.

Indication to this effect emerged when the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Alhaji Musa Sada, paid an unscheduled visit to the headquarters of the corporation during his tour to some mining sites in Ebonyi State.

Sada, who sought to know the state of the coal mining, firm, which had been slated for privatisation since 2005, was told that most of its assets were sold to individuals while others were under the control of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The Acting General Manager of the corporation, Mr. Obiora Onwuasigwe, said all the assets that were disposed of were sold on the advice of the consultants to the BPE as well as the committee that was headed by the Director-General of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency, Dr. Siyan Malomo.

According to him, the corporation’s guest house was functioning until it was shut down in 2005. But before then, there was a land committee headed by Malomo which had the authority to dispose of some of the landed property.

He said, “The guest house and other property were disposed of by the Malomo committee. The guest house is no more in a confusing management position because the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is also managing the guest house because it alleged that the new owner, who was then the state governor, may have used public funds to acquire that guest house among other property.

“As it is now, the new owner has not taken over the property from us, the EFCC is contending with us on the ownership of the property based on the interim management order received from the Federal High Court. On paper and with BPE’s record, the guest house is assumed to have been sold under Malomo’s committee.”

On mining equipment, he said that they were disposed of in November/December last year by consultants through the approval of BPE.

Integrated plant

He said, “The washing plant is also part of the disposal and the sale was a very recent one, between January and February. So, the washing plant is more like an integrated plant. The equipment were disposed of by the consultant with the approval of the BPE.”

Responding, the minister said that the hurried disposal of the assets amounted to attempt to do away with a prized institutional memory that the corporation represented. He said although the reasons for the decision might be wise, the impression that had always emanated from the corporation had been that of protectionism.

He said, “People don’t want to let me know about what is happening here. It is like there has been some agreement somewhere and some people are benefitting, and they believe that is the best way to go. Everything that I need to know about this place, I go to BPE. It shouldn’t be so.

The property you are talking about, I know a lot about them. You are telling me because we received complaints about salaries then you are going to sell this to pay that, then you give me a break down of this will cost this. How can you tell me that so and so equipment can raise one or two billion naira to pay these people?

“Before my last tenure ended, within the one month I was not around before coming back, so many things took place. It was as if there was a grand design to move in the wrong direction. When I came, I called your managing director and inspectorate director and told them what we were trying to do.

To me, one of the most important things about this place is the institutional memory. This is the oldest industry that I know in this country, so it survived based on information, based on data. Data is collected based on age.

“The corporation is history itself. We must fall back on this and try to develop something out of this institutional memory. This is what I have been trying to do. Everything is now being directed to the BPE. I don’t think BPE has a geologist in their office, so how can they provide such information.

These are some of the issues on ground. I am not giving up. To me if you say you want to sell everything and allow everybody to go that is the biggest waste you can create, because the biggest loss to civilisation is the loss of institutional memory.

“These issues concerning the privatisation, I am hearing them for the first time. I am hearing that of the school for the first time, I am hearing that of the hospital and the guest house for the first time.

The EFCC cannot run our property for us. Their mandate does not give them power to do that.

If BPE is selling, where is the money? We are getting complaints on a daily basis about the outstanding entitlements of people that have been asked to go. So these are some of the issues that you have to take note of. You need to look at the issues so we can sit down and take a decision on what we are going to do.”

He further directed the management to forward to him, documentation on coal deposits, the coal laboratory, the coal washing plant, smokeless coal briquette plant, the coal corporation hospital, and sale of the houses.