The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, on Thursday was summoned by the House of Representatives for an update on the state of the Ajaokuta Steel Company.

The urgent summon was also over the “modified concession” of the Nigerian Iron Ore Mining Company, Itakpe, to Global Steel Holdings Limited.

This may be connected to the complaint made by the Bureau of Public Enterprises to the lawmakers that the modified concession was done without its participation.

The House had ordered an investigation into the transaction after receiving a series of petitions from stakeholders in the steel sector, including workers.

The committee stated that Fayemi should appear before members on Thursday next week to disclose the details of the agreement he signed with GSHL on NIOMCO.

However, Fayemi was not present to give a full account at the National Assembly, yesterday.

Abdullahi represented the acting Director-General of the BPE, Dr. Vincent Akpotaire at the briefing on Thursday.

Abdullahi said, “The concession of NIOMCO was done by the ministry and not by BPE; so BPE doesn’t have the details…

“We are being supervised by the NCP. So, essentially, there has to be directives and instructions from the NCP.”

The Executive Secretary-General of the African Iron and Steel Association, Dr. Sanusi Muhammed, informed lawmakers that stakeholders were not involved in the modified concession negotiations.

He explained, “The privatisation of NIOMCO is null and void since BPE, the technical partner of NCP, which is in charge of privatisation, did not participate…

“And the minister said it is a modified agreement but nobody is allowed to see it. No stakeholder was invited. So, we are interested in knowing what the agreement looks like.”

Similarly, the co-Chairman, Iron and Steel Development Committee, Nigerian Society of Engineers,  Prof. David Esezobor, told the committee that despite telling the minister not to go ahead with it because there were unresolved issues, the concession was still done.

“When we held a meeting, we agreed that NIOMCO should not enter into concessioned with GSHL,” he claimed.