The Federal Government yesterday announced that it has accepted the voluntary withdrawal of interest by the Dangote Bluestar Consortium from the New Port Harcourt Refining Company (NPHRC) and the Kaduna Petrochemical and Refining Company (KPRC).
A statement issued by Ima Niboro, Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Communications said the Federal Government has also approved the refund of payments made for the acquisition of the refineries.
It will be recalled that the Dangote Bluestar Consortium had acquired 51 percent interest in both refineries after going through a due transaction process. Unfortunately, the sale of the refineries was to become the subject of intense public debate, and was even cited as one of the reasons for the last general strike by Labour.
As a result of this, the Consortium has written to government to vacate its interest in the refineries and government has accordingly accepted their withdrawal. The Federal Government statement reiterated that the sale of the refineries followed a transparent process, and that there remains no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) or any other government agency in this matter.
“Government wishes to reassure the public that there is a National Council on Privatisation (NCP) that oversees all issues that concern privatisation and commercialisation in the country. It is this council that approves all privatisation and related transactions before the BPE can act upon them,” the release stated.