CODIFIER

  The Kogi State Government, on Wednesday, responded to Dangote Industries Limited's insistence on 100 per cent ownership of Obajana Cement Company, saying that DIL's efforts at making Kogi State's demand appear unreasonable had only justified the state's protest against what it described as "callous and deliberate asset grabbing."  The state government maintained that Obajana Cement Company was solely founded in 1992 and owned by the state, which held 100 per cent of its shareholding in trust for its people, long before DIL ventured into the state and longer still before Dangote Cement Plc came into existence.  In a detailed response to Dangote Group's advertorial, titled, "Separating Facts From Fiction", the Kogi State Government noted that successive administrations had always invited Dangote Industries Limited and Dangote Cement Plc to prove that the Group paid anything at all  for the purported acquisition of Obajana and its alleged 100 per

   We have watched with concern the face-off between the Government of Kogi State and the Dangote Group over the ownership of the Obajana Cement Company, and we are obliged to make very clear our position on the issue after diligently studying the facts of the dispute as well as making far-reaching consultations with relevant stakeholders.  We have also followed how the Dangote Group has tried to divert the attention of the public from the crux of the matter with questionable claims of violence against its workers at the time of closure.  From time immemorial, the purpose of government has been to safeguard the overall wellbeing of the people by guaranteeing their social and economic security. This is what the Kogi State Government has done by insisting on correcting the age-long economic intimidation of its host state by the Dangote Group.  As indigenes of Kogi State, we affirm that the Government of Kogi State, under Alhaji Yahaya Bello, should be commended for demanding evidence of