By Favour Nnabugwu

The Federal Government has set up a 7-man commttee to intervene in the closure of Savannah Sugar Company by its host community in Adamawa State in order to settle the lingering feud between the two.

Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Dr. Samuel Ortom inaugurated a 7-man committee on a fact-finding and peace restoration mission to look at the remote cause of the lingering feud between the sugar company and its host community and settle them amicably.

The terms of reference of the committee include: to identify the immediate and remote causes of the present impasse between the company and the host community; suggest measures to address the labour issues relating to seasonal employment as it relates to the sugar industry and examine any other matters arising from the above or as the team deems fit.

Dr. Ortom pointed out that the closure of the company which the Management of the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) said was due to security threats arising from labour disputes within the company and the host community, must be given urgent attention so that the purpose of privatization of the company will not be defeated.

He noted the exploit of Dangote Group in the revival of production activities in the sugar company in the past seven years after emerging as the core investor in the privatization programme in 2003, stressing that it has been one of the outstanding stories of the privatization programme of the government.

Ortom said that Dangote had not only resuscitated all facets of the production plants but has also created opportunities for rural empowerment of the host community through the establishment of viable sugarcane outgrowers’ programme in collaboration with the NSDC.

While revealing the plan of the core investors to expand the company’s sugarcane fields so as to raise sugar production from the installed 54,000MT capacity to 100,000MT ultimately, the minister said these investment intentions of Dangote Group cannot be realised in an atmosphere of rancour and open threats from the host community.