Ajaokuta: Fayemi decries accusations by Reps

A week after being slammed with a no-confidence vote by the lower chamber of the National Assembly, Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, yesterday,  took serious exceptions to the litany of allegations and attacks unleashed on him and his minister of state, describing them as unwarranted and unbecoming.


Among the allegations, Fayemi is taking exceptions to are: claims that he had blocked the Russians who had offered to complete the Ajaokuta Steel Plant for Nigeria and the other that the hands of the ministry and its officials were tied to certain unnamed concessionaires favoured by them.

He said the Russians have neither offered nor expressed interest in reviving the plant since he became minister even though he has met severally with Russian ambassador and other officials from the country.

“These are unfounded allegations that are becoming unbearable and unbecoming and we have to speak out,” the minister said.

Fayemi, who spoke at a crowded news conference in Abuja, rejected what he called ‘’unsubstantiated claims’ made against him and top officials of the ministry by the lawmakers in relation to ongoing efforts of the Federal Government to reposition the Ajaokuta Steel Company in Kogi State.