The Kogi State Government said on Friday that it had not reached any agreement with the Dangote Group concerning the ownership of the Obajana Cement Plant.<\/p>\n
The plant, located in Obajana, Kogi State, has been a subject of controversy as both parties claim to be the legitimate owners of the plant.<\/span><\/p>\n In a new development, after meetings and interventions by stakeholders, the Kogi State Government has put measures in place to take Dangote Group to court and reclaim ownership of the plant.<\/span><\/p>\n This was disclosed in a statement by the state Commissioner of Information, Kingsley Fanwo; a copy of which was sent to Saturday PUNCH.<\/span><\/p>\n Fanwo said the battle for the ownership of the plant was far from over and that the government was ready to \u201cbattle it to the end\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n Fanwo noted in the statement that the decision was as a result of late night consultations and meeting on Thursday between key government officials led by Governor Yahaya Bello and stakeholders representing the different ethnic groups in the state.<\/span><\/p>\n Fanwo said at the meeting, which ran into the early hours of Friday, \u201cAll stakeholders resolved to head to court in the interest of the people and generations to come.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He also noted that the governor made it clear that there was \u201cno going back on the state\u2019s resolve to reclaim its asset\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n This was as he sued for calm in the interest of peace.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis struggle is not about Governor Yahaya Bello or his administration. It is about the people of Kogi State. In the last 72 hours, well meaning Nigerians, leaders and government officials have waded in and have pleaded with the governor to consider reopening of the plant while discussions are ongoing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe expectations of the over four million Kogites are clear and high and we want to assure them that the Governor and the Government of Kogi State will not compromise the interest of the people of the state to reclaim their rights in the cement company.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere were a series of high-powered meetings to resolve the impasse, including meetings having the Governor and Alhaji Aliko Dangote in attendance.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDiscussions were held and statements of interest were established, but there was no agreement yet as some desperate parties are trying to promote in the media to mislead the public.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe shall be non-violent in our approach as we are sure of green pathways to success for the people in this battle for the economic future of our dear state.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHowever, we maintain that the collective assets of the people of Kogi State must be protected and reclaimed in this instance. And that is the process the government has started. We will fight this battle to the end until we get justice from the courts. No committee can resolve this dispute,\u201d the statement read.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Kogi State Government said on Friday that it had not reached any agreement with the Dangote Group concerning the ownership of the Obajana Cement Plant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2456],"tags":[173,5887,537,5922,2931],"class_list":["post-10648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-court","tag-dangote","tag-kogi","tag-obajana","tag-yahaya-bello"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10648"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10650,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10648\/revisions\/10650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}