178
In an interview with ARISE News on March 14, 2024, former Deputy Governor of Kogi State Samson Achuba disclosed that Ajaokuta/Kogi Nigeria Limited was not owned by the Kogi State Government. Achuba suspected that former Governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello had it as personal property, and he also revealed that the company’s directors were not natives of Kogi State.
Samson Achuba, a former deputy governor of Kogi State, told ARISE News that Ajaokuta has been unable to progress since the governor of Kogi State created a firm to do business and moved it inside Kogi State as a cover. No, Kogi State is not the intended recipient of the Ajaokuta/Kogi Nigeria Limited. I have reason to believe that Yahaya Bello owns this property, and as of right now, none of the company’s directors are from Kogi. Two of them are from the states of Imo and Benue, respectively. The two directors of the Ajaokuta/Kogi Nigeria Limited are Emmanuel Okava (from Benue) and Okechukwu Onochie (from Imo), and Bello has been busy making sure that Ajaokuta and its administration are passed on to him.
According to Samson Achuba, the Ajaokuta Steel Company experienced challenges prior to the reign of Alhaji Yahaya Bello, the previous governor of Kogi State. However, former Nigerian president Mohammadu Buhari had good intentions to revive the Ajaokuta, but Yahaya Bello undermined those goals. He went on to say that Yahaya Bello was determined to treat Ajaokuta as his private domain.
