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Labour And Kogi Elders Vow To Resist Proposed Sale Of Ajaokuta Steel Company

Published

6 years ago

October 18, 2018

The proposed United Labour Congress (ULC) sale of Ajaokuta steel company may not come as planned as Labour and Kogi elders have vowed to make it fail.

The United Labour Congress (ULC) has condemned in strong terms the planned sale of Ajaokuta steel company by the Buhari-led federal government to finance the 2018 budget, according to Daily Post.

Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had earlier in the week in Indonesia, said the Federal Government is ready to offer more of its assets for sale soon, under the ongoing privatisation programme aimed at raising more money to implement the country’s 2018 budget deficit.

Kogi State chairman of the ULC, Comrade Opaluwa Eleojo, in a statement obtained by DAILY POST on Thursday, stated that the proposed sale is intended to hand over the nation’s patrimony to the friends and cronies of the current government.

“The proposed sale is criminal, as it is aimed at depriving the good people of the state their rights.

“We shall mobilize the labour movement and civil society groups in the state to resist that open and an official robbery.

“We have observed from the day one of this administration, that it will lead to this, as the government has been very hypothetical on the way it has handled the the issue of its completion,” the statement read.

In a related development, Kogi Elders Forum vehemently opposed the purported plan by the Federal Government to sell the Ajaokuta Steel Company to fund the 2018 budget.

In a press release signed by the Chairman of the Forum, Chief Julius Elukpo, the elders vowed to resist any attempt to sell the steel complex through constitutional means.

Elukpo said its position was sequel to a statement credited to the CBN governor that government intends to sell the company and others to fund the 2018 budget.

He described the government’s proposal as “a rude shock”, saying an outright sale of the steel plant would not be in the best interest of the nation.

Elukpo warned that the forum would make the company a campaign issue for the 2019 election, saying that the people of the state would be mobilized to vote for any presidential candidate ready to complete the project.