BUA cries for Buhari’s intervention in Dangote mining feud at Okpella

BUA group has accused Dangote group of trying to force it to relinquish mining rights in a limestone field as part of a bid to monopolise the cement market and asked the president to intervene, BUA’s chairman said. Both BUA and Dangote have an interest in cement in Nigeria and have expanded rapidly across Africa. Nigeria, has become a cement exporter from being a net importer. But last year’s recession and currency crisis has hit domestic demand, reducing sales for companies which are now trying to cut costs.

BUA’s chairman, Abdulsamad Rabiu, said Dangote group was undermining security around his plant in Okpella, Edo state, a region with large limestone deposits, a key ingredient in cement. Dangote’s cement operation is in the central state of Kogi.  The mines ministry said BUA group does not have a mining lease for the disputed site, which is the subject of a legal case. The ministry, in a statement, also said it had issued a stop work order to BUA. But BUA acquired the old Edo Cement which had the mining lease to the Obu deposit. By acquiring the Edo Cement, BUA had the mini leases of the defunct Edo cement factory.

One Ado Ibrahim had sold a mining lease reclaimed is in Kogi state to Dangote for which the ministry of Mines and Power are using as a bait to dispossess BUA of the mining rights the people of Okpella have said. According to them Dangote was directed to a different limestone deposit site for which it did a ground breaking only for it to shift focus to Obu.

. “Our cement business has of late come under intense, consistent attacks … as the minister, Dangote group and their cohorts have sought to employ instruments of state … to forcefully wrest control of our mining areas,” BUA said in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari. Rabiu called on Buhari to investigate. He said the company was under pressure to relinquish its mining area to Dangote.

Dangote group, majority owned by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, already has around 70 percent of market share in terms of output in Nigeria. Lafarge Africa, the local unit of Franco-Swiss cement maker, LafargeHolcim ranks second, industry analysts say.