A group under the aegis of Concerned Plateau Indigene has accused the Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong and the former Managing Director of Plateau Investment and Development Company ( PIPC) Mr Ezekiel Gommos of cover up in the sales of Brewery Agro and Research Company Ltd (BARC Farm).
Checks by our Correspondent revealed that Governor of Plateau State, Lalong was actively involved in the sales of a state owned Company, Brewery Agro and Research Company (BARC).
BARC Farm, was a subsidiary of Jos International Brewery which
in the early 1990s was under the ownership of the Plateau State government created through Plateau Investment and Development
Company Ltd (PIPC), also owned by state.
The company was alleged to have been sold to a company called ILHAMA
Enterprises Nigeria Ltd in 1993, a company owned by the former
Governor of Adamawa State, Admiral Nyako.
It was learnt that due to the very alleged dubious nature of the sale, the issue of the sale of BARC Farm continues to raise problems.
“One of the major problems is that to date, nobody has been held
accountable for the amount the company was sold for and the nature of
its receipt into the government.
“Several different figures have been discovered over the years
since1993. During the sale, the MD of PIPC Ltd Ezekiel Gommos handled
the process from the beginning. Being a very close friend of the
Governor, he was later appointed the Secretary to the State Government
(SSG) and continued to dodge the question of how much BARC Farm was
sold for and what account the funds were paid into. He initially said
the company had been sold for N19 million.
“Other documents quote him saying it was sold for N18 million. When
questioned in future years, he said it was sold for N27 million.
Another answer he gave in subsequent years was that it was sold for
N54 million. Documents exist for all these statements.
“It was also discovered that initially instead of receiving a payment
from ILHAMA Ltd the buyer, the amount received was described as a loan
of N17 million given to government and it is claimed that it was was
paid back to the buyer rather than retained as part payment for the
company.
“At the time of sale, the 5,000 hectare land on which the company was
built was valued at N2 million and the local original owners have
expressed much distress at being cheated by the government. Their cry
has never been heard due to constant manipulation of the facts”, it was learnt.
The source added further that , in 2015, Mr Ezekiel Gommos joined the
new government of Plateau State at first without any official
appointment, claimed to be the Chairman of PIPC Ltd, the company where
he was once Managing Director during the BARC Farm sale transaction.
It should be noted that he worked there alongside the man that is now Governor Lalong.
During the Barc
Farm transaction in 1993, Lalong was a barrister at PIPC so he was intricately involved in the process.
“Since 2015, Gomos has been aggressively offering to broker the reverse
sale of BARC Farm from Admiral Nyako back to Plateau State Government
first for the amount of N1.8 billion and in 2017 the value almost
doubled to N3 billion all without ever fully disclosing the original
sale price and where the money was paid. Nor ever showing how this
astronomical buy back amount was reached.
“Yet they have commenced celebrations that N3 billion of the recent
Paris Club refund, instead of being spent on public services and
paying long suffering workers salaries, has been withdrawn and put
aside to buy back Barc Farm”, he revealed.
“During previous governments, numerous questions have been asked about
the whereabouts of the money transacted from 1993 to date.
“Under former Governor Joshua Dariye, an investigation committee was
set up headed by the Special Adviser on Legal Matters. The committee
discovered that indeed the money received from Admiral Nyako was not
fully disclosed, nor was it paid into the government account. The
committee paid a visit to Admiral Nyako, who said he paid N180 million
in purchase of BARC Farm and he gave the payment to Mr Ezekiel Gommos,
who was SSG at the time of sale”.
He said that despite paying in full, he was not given control of the company so in fear of losing his investment, he removed some
assets from Barc Farm and tried to recover his loss.
“When the truth was uncovered and presented to Governor Dariye,
mysteriously the committee’s final report never saw the light of day,
much to the dismay of the committee members who had worked tirelessly
to unraveling the mystery.
“While publicly, blame was heaped on the former Governor Tapgun, who in actual fact was not responsible for this debacle. He was also unaware that someone in government had orchestrated the entire scam.
“During those years, it was very obvious that Mr Ezekiel Gommos made a
meteorically rise to wealth, culminating in him sending his entire
family to live in the United States of America and living an extravagant lifestyle.
“He is also known to own large properties in the USA, in Abuja and in Jos, Plateau State including hotels and a business school which he sold to the former Governor Jang administration for an astronomical sum of around N350 million well above any reasonable value for a property of that size in Plateau State.
“In 2011, Sahara Reporters media reported on the sale of the BARC Farm
and raised questions about why the mysterious sale still remains
unresolved.
“More recently the 2017 declaration of the buying back of Barc Farm at
N3 billion has been heralded by the ignorant as a great achievement.
People are actively discussing how the value can be justified, especially if one bears in mind that in 2016 EFCC seized all of
Admiral Nyako’s properties. If this farm was sold to Admiral Nyako
then there is no need to buy it back since the Federal Government will
return it to Plateau state government.
“The federal authorities seem to be unaware while the latest fictitious sale is once again allowed to take place and the farm continues to be used as a mule”, the group alleged.
