Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, has described the call for the Federal Government to sell national assets to address the current economic recession as greedy and selfish.
Rejecting the call, yesterday, during a solemn assembly in Calabar, the Cross River State chapter of PFN said that such plans should not be allowed to come into fruition.
Dr Lawrence Ekwok, Chairman of PFN in the state, in an address at the event, which was held to pray for the country in commemmoration of its 56th independence anniversary, said that apart from the fact that the assets sold during the privitisation and commercialization exercise were grossly undervalued and sold to ‘powerful’ individuals, government functionaries and businesses, the ordinary man did not benefit from the exercise.
He said: “The Ajaokuta Steel Company was built then at a cost of $3.3 billion but sold at a paltry sum of $250 million and as if that was not bad enough, only $130 million of the $250 million was paid and nothing has been heard of the balance.”
He said that out of a total of 100 companies owned by Nigerians and sold during that era, only a paltry N301 billion was realised and out of that amount N36.1 billion was spent on transaction costs by those who handled the sale.
“Nigerians must today reject and resist vehemently this planned daylight robbery called proposed sale of national assets. It is not only a wicked and selfish call but also evil and devilish”, he declared.
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