A social cultural organization, Kogi Patriotic Group (KPG) has rejected the handing over of public assets belonging to the Kogi people by the State Government to private entities.
KPG said the handing over of the state-owned Confluence Beach Hotel, under translucent circumstances, as a rape of the people.
The group said the sale of legacy assets by government as it is being handled lack credibility as the investors are not credible or listed on the website of Nigerian Stock Exchange, describing them as fronts and cronies of people in government.
Coordinator of the group, Abdul Abdul who spoke on behalf of KPG, demanded immediate and total reversal of the transaction or the state government will risk litigation.
He opined that the idea of selling viable state assets is both childish and archaic, noting that “you cannot sell dog to buy another dog.”
The group maintained that no state government in Nigeria has embarked on asset lease/sales except after a well arranged bond from the stock market, stating that “the Kogi state government has positioned its friends and well wishers to take over public assets after plunging the state to bankruptcy.
“A government which cannot embark on completion of new Kogi Hotels and carry out some repairs on Confluence Beach Hotel, has no good plans of turning around the fortune of the state.”
Abdul claimed the people of the state are not unaware of plans to sell off Kogi House in Abuja, where other states like Abia, Adamawa, Rivers are raking billions of Naira in revenue yearly.
“No benefits will be attracted to the state from the sales/lease rather than personal aggrandizement and diversion into personal pockets, after assessing and exhausting all grants in loans and allocation.”
The group promised “to resist the new form of corruption rearing its head in Kogi state, believing that in a sane environment, a committee is supposed to handle such arrangement, and not the teleguided Kogi Investment and Properties Limited, whose appointees are stooges of the state government.
It would be recalled that the Kogi State Government leased the Confluence Beach Hotel and Gulf Club to Capital Boutique Limited, a private investor earlier in the month. The move has been criticised by some people in the state.
