Dangote's Company Refute Accusations

The former Benue Cement Company, [BCC], originally partly owned by the Nigerian government and the Benue State government, was bought by Aliko Dangote in 2004 under the government’s privatisation programme.
At more than three million tons of cement output yearly, the Gboko factory is only second to the Obajana plant in Kogi State – key contributors to Mr. Dangote’s lightning wealth rise that has seen him become Africa’s richest man, worth $24 billion.
The Dangote Cement Plc is Nigeria’s largest cement manufacturer with ambitious plans to expand into 14 other African countries. Dangote Cement is the largest company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, having listed its shares in October 2010.

The company insists it has done well for its host community.
“For that community, we have done so much,” Anthony Chiejina, a spokesperson for the Dangote Group, told PREMIUM TIMES. “If you check, just last month, the group reached out to displaced persons in the state. The governor was there and everybody attended. We gave items worth more than N45 million to the community. We went with 15 truck load of relief items.”
The company also listed a N10 million scholarships provided to indigenes of the area, and the provision of a clinic as some of its corporate social responsibility projects.

But the community insists the company was is not doing enough. Locals say accessing the scholarship has remained frustrating, and question why the victims of the attack were taken elsewhere if the medical facility in the community was functional.
“If a company is situated in a community, there are some amenities the people are supposed to enjoy. Gboko community is not enjoying anything from Dangote,” said Mr. Shosum, the paramount ruler of the area.

For years, those concerns bred tension between the Dangote firm and the community. That anger exploded in 2011 when locals pushed for improved opportunities, a re-enactment of the frequent friction in the Niger Delta between host communities and oil multinationals.
As trouble flared that year following the killing of a local, allegedly by a cement truck, anti-riot police and soldiers were deployed to the community to keep the peace. The soldiers would stay permanently eventually.
Some community members wondered why soldiers, instead of police officers, were drafted to guard a private property.

The spokesperson for the Nigeria Army, Brigadier General Olaleye, said as Africa’s richest and the biggest private sector employer of labour in the country, the Nigerian government has a duty to keep Mr. Dangote’s businesses safe, when threatened.
“Once an area has been labelled a high risk area, whether it is public, private or otherwise, it is our duty to provide adequate security. Internal security is our business,” Mr. Olaleye said.
“For instance, churches, schools and other organizations that are not owned by the government are being guarded by the military now. Is there any state where Nigerian soldiers are not deployed now?” he said.


Premium Times