Ajaokuta Concession: EFCC Sued for Allegedly Hoarding Investigative Report

The controversy surrounding Nigeria’s concession of Ajaokuta
Steel Company Limited (ASCL) and National Iron Ore Mining Company
(NIOMCO) to Indian firm, Global Infrastructure Holding Limited
(GIHL), on Friday assumed a fresh dimension when a group of
relevant metallurgical unions in the country filed a case in the
Federal High Court sitting in Abuja against the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly hoarding an
interim investigative report on the operations of GIHL in the two
national assets.

According to the court papers with suit number:
FHC/Abj/CS/674/17, the unions comprising Nigerian Metallurgical
Society, African Iron and Steel Association (AISA), Steel and
Engineering Workers Union of Nigeria, and Iron and Steel Senior
Staff Association of Nigeria, and their attorneys, Sulaiman
Abduraheem and Natasha Akpoti, asked the court to mandate the EFCC
to release to them certified true copies of its past investigation
on GIHL’s operations in NIOMCO and ASCL, as ordered by late
President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2008.

Provided to our reporter in Abuja, the court order was served on
EFCC, with their prayers including a request on it to immediately
provide the plaintiff copies of its investigations on GIHL, as well
as pay the sum of N500,000 for initially denying its request for
the investigative report in contravention of Section 21 of the
Freedom of Information (FoI) Act.

The group noted that it made the request to EFCC on June 13,
2017, but the anti-graft agency refused to provide it the requested
report.

It also claimed that in its reluctance, the EFCC rather asked it
to drop the case on the grounds that it was old and perhaps
stale.

THISDAY

The controversy surrounding Nigeria’s concession of Ajaokuta
Steel Company Limited (ASCL) and National Iron Ore Mining Company
(NIOMCO) to Indian firm, Global Infrastructure Holding Limited
(GIHL), on Friday assumed a fresh dimension when a group of
relevant metallurgical unions in the country filed a case in the
Federal High Court sitting in Abuja against the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly hoarding an
interim investigative report on the operations of GIHL in the two
national assets.

According to the court papers with suit number:
FHC/Abj/CS/674/17, the unions comprising Nigerian Metallurgical
Society, African Iron and Steel Association (AISA), Steel and
Engineering Workers Union of Nigeria, and Iron and Steel Senior
Staff Association of Nigeria, and their attorneys, Sulaiman
Abduraheem and Natasha Akpoti, asked the court to mandate the EFCC
to release to them certified true copies of its past investigation
on GIHL’s operations in NIOMCO and ASCL, as ordered by late
President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2008.

Provided to our reporter in Abuja, the court order was served on
EFCC, with their prayers including a request on it to immediately
provide the plaintiff copies of its investigations on GIHL, as well
as pay the sum of N500,000 for initially denying its request for
the investigative report in contravention of Section 21 of the
Freedom of Information (FoI) Act.

The group noted that it made the request to EFCC on June 13,
2017, but the anti-graft agency refused to provide it the requested
report.

It also claimed that in its reluctance, the EFCC rather asked it
to drop the case on the grounds that it was old and perhaps
stale.

THISDAY