The committee set up by the Federal Government to probe the concession and subsequent purchase agreement between the government and Global Infrastructure Nigeria Limited with respect to the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited and the Nigerian Iron Ore Mining Company, has recommended the immediate termination of the agreements.

The committee’s submission, obtained by our correspondent in Abuja on Tuesday, indicated that GIHL had largely failed to meet the purpose for which the agreement was signed. The report also catalogued a litany of breaches of the agreement by GIHL bordering on unwholesome accounting practices, cannibalisation and vandalisation of plants and equipment, dangerous engineering practices, failure to inject foreign capital and many others.

Set up on October 30, 2007 by the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Chief Sarafa Isola, on the orders of the Presidency, the five-man committee, led by Mallam Magaji Inua, submitted that both the concession and share sale/purchase agreements, in respect of Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited and Nigerian Iron Ore Mining Company were not in the over- all interest of Nigeria.

“An overview of the agreement reveals that the covenants were largely skewed in favour of the concessionaire to the detriment of the government.
“The panel viewed the conditionality of submission of a business development plan, five months after assuming full management and control of the company, as not to the best interest of the nation as this gave room for complacency.
Three years after assuming full control, no workable business plan has been submitted to the Federal Government by the concessionaire.”

The members also observed that there were so many clauses in the agreement that did not put government in a position of strength and recommended that in future, agreements of that nature should be drawn and vetted by the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.