FG Wastes N3.4bn Monthly On Idle Ajaokuta Steel Mill Workers – AMCON Chairman

ajaokuta-factory1The Federal Government is wasting N3.4 billion monthly on maintaining the Ajaokuta Steel Mill, the chairman of the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), Alh Kola Belgore, has said.

“That is what we are paying for doing nothing monthly currently at Ajaokuta”, he said.

Belgore lamented that despite the huge potential of Ajaokuta Steel Mill, it remained unproductive, adding that “There are 2,500 engines mounted and engineers and 6,000 employees, and we are paying them every month a total of N3.4bn”.

The AMCON chairman spoke in Ilorin at an award ceremony in honour of acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Sulaiman Abba, AIG Ambrose Aisabor, Corps Marshal of the FRSC and three other alumni of the Nigeria Institute of Policy and Stategic Studies (NIPPS), Kuru, Jos.

The award ceremony was organised by the immediate past president of the Association of Alumni of Institute (AANI) and chairman, LUBCON Group of Companies, Alh. Jani Ibrahim.

Alh. Belgore decried the situation of the country, saying things are virtually static.

Listing the achievement of AMCON, he proudly announced that it is the only corporation with over N6trillion and not a single kobo of the amount has missed.

He blamed the unemployment problem on closure of companies and businesses in the country.

He added, “The honest truth is that we are not happy and if here we say we are happy, it is because most of us are in a comfort zone of the society –we are privileged in the society. If we ask the masses of this country who are downtrodden, they would tell you they are not happy with the situation of the country.

“The country is virtually static. Things are not moving in the right direction and everybody is keeping quiet. It has nothing to do with politics, it has to do with our collective interest.

“God endowed Nigeria very well with human, material resources, yet we are seriously under-performing as a nation. We must wake up and try to do something to move us in the right direction.

“The nation is blessed with petrol and yet we are importing fuel in the country. We are importing petrol and we are the seventh largest producer in the world. What kind of ridicule is that? Yet we all kept quiet. You saw what happened when they were investigating those that said they imported fuel to the country. They did not bring anything, yet through connivance they manipulated papers and they were collecting billions as cost of importing fuel”, he said.

=”left”>