…GE is saying, among many other tongue-in-cheek things it has said over the years, that it has handed over the liability in the dispute with Arco to one Baker Hughes, a so-called successor company unknown to the original contract. That was after it said it was unwilling to reopen the issue because it was status-barred, before a flood of complaints dragged it back to its senses.
The federal commissioner for Mines and Power at the time, Alhaji Shettima Ali Monguno, scrambled to put the government’s house in order in response to the backlash of the nationalisation. Every business has its ups and downs and Arco has had more than its fair share of both. One down moment that has stubbornly refused to look up started as what Okoigun thought was a blessing in disguise – at least in the beginning.
That intervention saved, not only the life of the projects in which the government had invested over $300 million, it also kept alive the hopes of the communities to receive electricity and perhaps begin meaningful lives after decades of failed promises. And there have been victims. Not struggling casualties on a danger list hoping to recover soon. According to Okoigun, at least five former staff of Arco have died waiting to collect their benefits.
Apart from a number of meetings, FIRS has written at least three times to GE either to inform the multinational that it was wrong to deduct 10 per cent, to ask it to show proof of withholding tax credit notes, if at all they have it, or to ask the company to refund to Arco taxes wrongfully deducted. So, why not go to court, Okoigun has been asked many times, a question which I also asked him? Because that is exactly what GE wants. That is what GE has been playing for all these years.