The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has joined the call for the probe of Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASL) and the National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO).
SaharaReporters had reported that the lawmaker representing Kogi Central senatorial district, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, had moved a motion to investigate alleged corruption and inefficiency at the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASL) and the National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO) located in Kogi respectively.
Senator Natasha, in her motion, had urged the Senate to investigate the affairs of Ajaokuta Steel and NIOMCO between 2008 and February 2024.
While some monarchs in Kogi State have accused the lawmaker of acting in isolation and without the input of critical stakeholders, northern youths under Northern Ethnic Youth Group Assembly (NEYGA) has condemned a move by some traditional rulers in Kogi State seeking to stop the probe of Ajaokuta Steel Company.
In its reaction, NANS backed the call for probe stating that the set of individuals who brought the Ajaokuta Steel Company to this comatose are still walking the street uninvestigated and unpunished.
The group added that the people indicted to the tune of several millions of US dollars further siphoned $496m in September 2022 through Buhari’s administration have neither been probed nor punished.
“This is not a good precedence at all and if unchecked would create an avenue for dabbling into President Tinubu’s efforts of resuscitating the steel plant.
“These individuals including past corrupt government executives denied the public, most especially the youth, the benefit of experiencing the exodus of job opportunities, technological exposure and economic emancipation that would have been massively accrued to us all these while if they had done what was expected of them.
“They selfishly and callously mismanaged Ajaokuta Steel Company and grounded it with the notion that nothing will happen in the end. If acts like these go uninvestigated and unpunished, what is now the tendency that after rebuilding, some other people would not come and do the same thing to loot and ground it again the umpteenth time? This should not be so,” NANS added.
The students’ association called for the immediate probe of the Ajaokuta steel company stating that if these offenders are brought to book, it will serve as a deterrent to others who are aspiring to steal from the company as soon as it starts operation again.
“Bringing them to book will help the company grow in the sense that the money recovered from these offenders would be pumped back into the company and it will give it a higher lift in every sense;
“While the revamping of this company is going on, the probing of these culprits should aggressively continue. Both can go concurrently and one will not affect another. As a matter of fact, the probing is an essential part of the revamping because investigators and other Stakeholders may discover in the course of probing that some bad eggs are still on the management and staff of this Steel Company. With these probes, many unveilings will take place, giving way to a holistic revitalization and resuscitation of the Ajaokuta Steel Company,” the group added.
NANS further demanded for the setup of a proper management to oversee the development of the steel company.
It said, “Having a Sole Administrator for the past 12 years to oversee a public and national company like Ajaokuta Steel is not good enough. This gives room to corruption in the sense that there will be no one else to check the excesses of the Sole Administrator and this may give him/her an ample chance to misuse the trust and powers given to him/her. Hence, power in this institution should be broken down to the Managing Director, Executive Director Technical Services , Executive Director Finance and other directorates for more effectiveness, accountability and productivity that will culminate in efficacious checking and balancing; and
“In as much as this company is Federal Government owned, one particular group should never claim ownership and control of it because it's built on their land. Just the way no single tribe is laying claims to the the oil in the Niger Delta and the Hydroelectric dams in Kanji and its environs, we see no reason why the Ebira people will turn the Ajaokuta Steel Company to their personal property and would never want others to benefit from the largesse that should come with it. This company should be a haven of massive employment opportunities for us Nigerian Students upon graduation and it should also be a technology site where our potential engineering students all over the country could come and experience technological innovations at its peak as they aspire for greatness in the field of engineering. So, no single tribe, out of the over 200 tribes in Nigeria has the right to lay claim of sole ownership to this government project built from the nation's taxpayers money. This must be checkmated.
“Conclusive, if there are individuals or group of individuals protecting the corrupt managers of the Ajaokuta Steel Company and hereby shielding them from any form of probe and judgement, it simply means that they are beneficiaries of the ill-gotten proceeds of the mismanagement or they have other personal interests that are not people-friendly and that are tantamount to water down or nullify President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's fight against corruption. These set of people should also be probed. They may even be part of those used by these selfish leaders to loot the treasury of the steel company dry.“