Rauf Aregbesola, the interior minister, has revealed that the Dangote Group and the Kogi State Government have achieved an understanding over the necessity of reopening the facility. He urged both sides to uphold the understanding. After a 10-day dispute between the two parties on the legitimacy of the purchase of the cement factory, the plant was finally reopened.
The Kogi State Government had argued that the acquisition of the cement factory by Africa’s richest man did not follow the appropriate process in a number of remarks made by its commissioner of information, Kingsley Fanwo.
The state administration contended that the plant acquisition procedure amounted to asset grabbing, which was supported by the House of Assembly. For its side, Dangote Industries Limited, the parent firm of Dangote Cement Plc, had argued that it had obeyed the law when it bought Obajana Cement Company.
A statement by DIL insisted that Kogi State had no equity interest in Obajana Cement Plc.
The statement noted that the plant and machinery were conceived, designed, procured, built, and paid for solely by DIL, well after it acquired the shares in Obajana Cement Company.
The company further said that the land on which the Obajana Cement Plant is built was acquired solely by Dangote Industries Limited in 2003, and that taxes paid to Kogi Govt yearly since production commenced in 2007.
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), the Trade Union Congress, and the Shareholders Associations in Nigeria, had also waded into the conflict.
