Senate sacks BPE DG, reverses sale of Transcorp Hilton, Abuja Sheraton

The Senate, onTuesday, adoptedall the recommendations of the ad hoc Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation it set up to investigate the privatisation and commercialisation activities of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) from 1999 to date.The implications of the adoption of the report are the approval of the sack of the Director-General of the BPE, Bolanle Onagoruwa; the reversal of the sale of Transcorp Hilton and Abuja Sheraton Hotel, as well as the sale of Daily Times of Nigeria to Folio Communication Limited.The Ahman Lawan-led Ad hoc Senate Committee had recommended the revocation of the sales of the assets of the firms for the failure of the buyers to abide by the terms of agreement.According to the committee, the sack of Ms Onagoruwa became necessary for 'gross incompetence' in the management of the bureau and for fraudulent sales of five per cent of the Federal Government residual shares in Eleme Protrochemicals Company.The senators also approved a recommendation that asked for the reprimand of past heads of the BPE, especially Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, for contravening the law and reporting directly to the president.But the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in a swift reaction, said the Senate had no reason to recommend him for reprimand in its probe of the BPE.A statement by el-Rufai's media advisor, Mr Muyiwa Adekeye, said that the Senate's recommendation was strange, adding that the report followed 'a shoddy job and does not give any credit to the Senate as an institution.'The statement read in part: 'The Senate's adoption of the said report and its recommendations today does nothing to change this position. Recommendation 38 which asks that he be reprimanded for seeking presidential approval for privatisation issues is without basis.''He challenged the Senate to present any evidence to support the recommendation.According to the committee, 'the NCP should rescind the sale of Transcorp Hilton for failure of the core investor to deliver on the following fundamental provisions of the Share Purchase Agreement/Post-Acquisition Plans: construction of a shopping mall within the hotel grounds, short/long stay serviced apartments on the available land within the hotel premises to cater for corporate and similar clients whose needs may not be met by the typical hotel service structure, among others.''This had, however, proved all speculators who had earlier believed that the upper legislative body would abandon the recommendations, alleging pressure from certain quarters.
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