Posted by Reuters on
About 2,000 protesters on Wednesday blockaded a Nigerian steel plant acquired in February by India's Ispat Industries over what they said were unpaid wages dating back to before privatisation.
WARRI, Nigeria, Oct 5 (Reuters) - About 2,000 protesters on Wednesday blockaded a Nigerian steel plant acquired in February by India's Ispat Industries over what they said were unpaid wages dating back to before privatisation.
About 100 police and troops deployed close to the demonstrators, many of whom lost their jobs when Ispat bought an 80 percent share in the moribund Delta Steel Company, previously fully owned by the Nigerian state.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Power and Steel said the government had earmarked 3 billion naira ($22 million) to compensate workers who lost their jobs in the privatisation of the steel sector, but the money had not been released yet.
"It is in the process of going through the system. The people affected will receive their money," the spokesman said, adding that confusion had arisen because some workers were claiming severance packages even though they had kept their jobs.
He said Delta Steel used to have around 4,000 workers and 1,300 had lost their jobs in the sell-off.
Ispat subsidiary Global Holdings Ltd paid $30 million for Delta Steel, one of dozens of industrial plants built by Nigeria's military rulers in the 1970s which fell into bankruptcy and disrepair due to mismanagment and corruption. ADVERTISEMENT
Located near the oil hub of Warri in the southwestern Delta state, it has a two-million-tonne per annum pelletisation plant, a 1.4-million-tonne per annum direct-reduced iron plant and a 1.8-million-tonne per annum electric arc furnace.
After years of inactivity, it has resumed production since the new management took over though output figures were not immediately available.
Delta Steel is the third major Nigerian steel venture for Ispat, which last year won the concession to run the nation's largest steel mill at Ajaokuta and in January was given the concession to run its largest iron ore mine.
The 1.3-million-tonne per year Ajaokuta plant produced its first steel last November when its wire rod and light mills came on stream 25 years after construction began in 1979.