How Yar’Adua was pressurised to revert refineries sold to Dangote-

File: Obasanjo and the late Musa Yar'Adua

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed that his immediate successor, Late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua reversed the sale of two of the country’s refineries which had been finalized before he left office due to “pressure.”

The revelation was made in his serialised interview with “Book Club,” which aired on Channels Television yesterday.

According to Obasanjo, Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, leading a consortium of investors had pad $750 million for the two refineries as the Federal Government was unable to manage them at the time, adding that Yar’Adua failed to consolidate on the sale of the refineries so the investors could revamp them, but fell to pressure and cancelled the sale.

He said: “The refineries are old and Dangote and some investors paid $750m for two of the refineries. My successor came to office and reversed the sale. He even refunded the money they paid.

“So, I went to him and said ‘why did you do this?’ He said it was because of pressure. So, I said ‘so the pressure of some people was more important than the interest of the whole nation?’

“Right now, you will hardly be able to sell the refineries for more than $250m because they are very old,” said Obasanjo.

(c) Vanguard