The Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL) and the National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO) at Itakpe have been granted a concession by the Kogi State High Court, which is located in Lokoja, the state’s capital.
The court also prohibited the government from doing its anticipated virtual pre-qualification conference interview scheduled for May 4, 2023, while the motion on notice was being heard and decided.
The two businesses are located in Kogi State, and the federal government has already started the concession procedure for them.
On behalf of the state’s administration and residents, the Kogi State Attorney General, however, filed a lawsuit in court with the case number HCL/211M/2023 asking the court to issue an enrollment order prohibiting the government from moving through with the concession process.
While the Attorney General of Kogi State is the Claimant/Applicant in the motion with file number 211M/2003, the Attorney General of the Federation, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL), and National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO) are the Defendants/Respondents.
M. Y. Abdullahi, SAN, the applicant’s counsel, brought up the affidavit of urgency sworn to in the application while requesting the enrolment order in front of the court with the assistance of seven other attorneys.
Hon. Justice Josiah Majebi, the state’s chief judge and the chair of the High Court 1, issued his decision and approved the applicant’s two pleas after finding merit in the case.
He claimed that the claimant’s affidavit of urgency clearly showed that he had a “prima facie case on a claim of right to the fifth and sixth defendants (ASCL and NIOMCO) and that, unless the court intervenes at this point to stop the defendants from moving forward with their plan on the concession of the companies, their action would impose a state of helplessness and hopelessness.”
The defendants would have finished the concession process in less than 30 days, which is before the period of 30 days permitted by court rule for the defendants to file their defense, the applicant said, adding that this would result in the “loss of his (applicant’s) cause of action leading to his right and interest extinguished completely.”
