Reps probe sale of Eleme petrochemical company

Uncover unregistered firm involved in oil swap deal

THE House of Representatives has directed its Committee on Privatization and Commercialisation to investigate the sale of Eleme Petrochemical Company to Indorama Corporation by the Bureau of Public Enterprises.

The chamber yesterday tasked the panel to within four weeks make appropriate recommendation to the House.

This followed a motion brought by Oluwole Oke, who alleged that due to lack of proper valuation, the company, which was built at the cost of $2.4 billion with state-of-the-art olefin plant, polyethylene/butane and polyprophene, captive power, caustic soda plants and other facilities, was sold to Indorama Corporation at just $215 million.

“The sale of the petrochemical company seemed to have lacked transparency and did not follow due process in line with the Public Procurement Act,” the lawmaker argued, adding that had the company, which was operating at 100 per cent of its installed capacity, and employed 1,000 Nigerians at inception not been sold, it would have by now be providing employment for about 10,000 Nigerians.

Meanwhile, the House has called for the resuscitation of the Ikere George dam, located at Iseyin local council of Oyo State, urging its Committee on Works to liaise with the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing to ensure that the construction of the 32-kilometer access road from Iseyin to the dam site is captured in the 2016 national budget.

In a related issue, House of Representatives members yesterday uncovered how Duke Oil Incorporated, a subsidiary of the Nigeria National petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was not on the list of Ministry of Finance incorporated companies with the sole responsibility of tracking all Federal Government assets