Breaking: Prove ownership of your cement factory – Kogi govt to Dangote

THE Kogi State House of Assembly has called on Dangote Group to come clean and provide all necessary documents as required by the ad hoc committee on the investigative hearing.

The legislature contended that they are only interested in how to resolve the impasse amicably for the state to have its fair share on the investment and not using any tactic that will jeopardise the peace of the state.

This was contained in a press statement issued on Sunday by the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the Speaker, Mr Femi Olugbemi, which was made available to CN.

“The 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended is clear on the functions of the States Houses of Assembly to make laws that will promote good governance of the state. It also has power on oversight functions to make enquiry or sanction as the case maybe.

“The constitution further gives power to the legislative arm be it federal or state to set up committees to carry out any specific assignment in this case, the ad hoc committee to investigate the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for Kogi State. Where has the speaker or members of the assembly committed any offence when they are performing their constitutional responsibility upon which the people elected them.

“It will interest the public to know that for such a transaction of that magnitude to be valid, a resolution of the state legislature is needed to perfect whatever agreement any agencies of government may want to enter; a fact the management of Dangote Group cannot deny.

Meanwhile, the ownership tussle between the Kogi State government and the Dangote Group over Obajana Cement Company took another dimension on Sunday, as the National Association of Kogi State Students (NAKOSS), vowed to defend the stand of the state government up to the World Court.

The students, in various institutions across Nigeria, threw their weight behind the state government’s demands in a statement signed by NAKOSS national president and chairperson, Council of 36 States Student Presidents (CSSP), Rachael Mojirola Balogun.

They argued that the Dangote Group had, for long, carried out devastating economic injustice on the people of the state.