UC RUSAL, operators of Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria, on Thursday, denied representatives of the BFIG Corporation access to the plant located in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, The Nation reports.
The Nation said that the BFIG group led by its president, Reuben Jaja and representatives of the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) were on official tour to evaluate the state of the plant in line with the Supreme Court judgement of July 7, 2012.
The apex court had ruled in favour of the BFIG group in a suit filed by the BPE.
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But the UC Rusal said it had secured judgement from the London Court of Arbitration that ALSCON had been properly privatised.
The Nation reports that soldiers engaged by UC RUSAL blocked the gate of the company disallowing some officials of BFIG group from entering the facility.
It took several hours of persuasion for only two representatives of BFIG to go in and join the BPE officials to hold talks with the Russians.
Lead Council to the BFIG group, Chief Patrick Ikwueti (SAN), told journalists that they were in ALSCON to begin the enforcement of the Supreme Court judgement on January 7,2012.
He said ” We are here because following the last Supreme Court judgement over the ALSCON matter, the one that was given on the 26th of January, 2024, we had a meeting with the Attorney General of the federation and the BPE and we agreed on a number of things.
“We have to fully enforce the Supreme Court judgement given on ALSCON since 2012 and part of what we agreed was that we should have a visit to ALSCON facility here in Ikot Abasi”.
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Ikwueti said though the BFIG representatives had limited access into the premises, the company is satisfied that ALSCON actually exists in terms of physical building, adding, however, that he does not know the state of the plant.
ALSCON Managing Director, Dmitriy Zaviyalov had stated during a media interaction with journalists that ALSCON had never been a party to the Supreme Court judgement.
Zavlyalov added that it had agreed with the Nigerian government that the last court of arbitration would be the London Court of Arbitration
“You should understand that ALSCON is not a party to these suits in question. The BPE approached the Supreme Court taking BFIG to court. BPE is a representative of the Nigerian government that holds a small stake in ALSCON.
“Equally, you should understand that in our agreement with the Nigerian government, it was agreed that the last court of Arbitration would be the London Court of Arbitration” he said.
But reacting to ALSCON’s claim, Ikwueti said that the Supreme Court in its last judgement underscored that the agreement was in itself a contempt of the court.
“While we were in court in 2004 and 2006, the Russians purportedly signed an agreement with BPE. That agreement was signed while the matter was still pending before court by induction of what they called Lease Spenders would be in effect.
“But the supreme court of Nigeria in 2012 was specific that there was an order of injunction perpetually restraining the BPE from negotiating, attempting, selling or transferring ALSCON to anybody. So, the Arbitration that you are talking about was based on SPA they claimed to have signed in 2006 while the matter was pending in court.
