The chairman of Dangote group of companies, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has hinted that his Petroleum Refinery was relocated from Olokola to Lagos State because of an unresolved disagreement between his company and Ogun state government led by Ibukunle Amosun.
Starnews NG reports that Dangote Petroleum Refinery was initially planned to be sited in Olokola, a boundary community shared between Ondo and Ogun states; but surprisingly, the refinery was relocated to Lagos State without any official reason given by Dangote’s company.
The relocation later generated a lot of controversy, and cheap blackmail against the reputation of the former Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Segun Mimiko, who was wrongly accused of seeking personal interest (his welfare) at the expense of the state.
Dangote who spoke while addressing journalists at the refinery complex in Lagos, said the continued disagreement between his company and the Amosu led Ogun state government orchestrated his decision to relocate the refinery to Lagos.
Dangote stated that his company was losing money paid as interest on the loan secured for the project, while the disagreement last for three and half years.
He added that the biggest problem the company had was the inability to gain access to Olokola plant while the disagreement lasted.
In a video obtained by Nigerian Cable News Online on Wednesday, Dangote said that, “We signed the loan agreement of this refinery in September 2013. Normally in banks, they don’t lock their money – once you sign, you must draw down within 90 days.” He said.
“When we signed that loan, the first draw-down was 2.65 billion dollars which we took. The bank did not even ask us for the certificate of the land because of the trust they had in Dangote group, even though we had the certificate with us then, but we had no access to the land. We didn’t have licence because the issue of licence dragged for a long time.”
“It was a period the government was begging people to come and get licence but some people believed if we get the licence, we might succeed in building the refinery, so they withheld the licence for a while, but we got it finally.”
The biggest problem we had was Ogun state government where for 3 and half years, we could not gain access into Olokola plant. You know when you are building a complex like this, you need the access to do the soil test and other test for you to even start drawings, you need to know the kind of foundation you want to have.”
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t agree with Ogun state government and that delay cost us over 500 million dollars because we were paying interest on the money (loan) as the 2.65 billion dollars was in an exco account where there was no interest rate at all.”
“From there, we got upset. We now got this land from Lagos state government. For the cement, we have spent 1.7 billion dollars.” He added.
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