It is simply a battle of ex-directors-general of the beleaguered Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) as Dr. Julius Bala, a former D-G yesterday warned his predecessor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, to desist from further smearing his reputation or face court action.
It could be recalled that the duo engaged each other in a verbal battle of wit at the just concluded Senate public hearing on the privatisation and commercialisation activities of the BPE.
However, in a statement in Abuja, Bala, who succeeded el-Rufai, frowned at what he termed “some disparaging and malicious comments on my person and professional competence, especially concerning my years of service at BPE, attributed to the former minister of the Federal Captial Territory and a former D-G of BPE, Mallam Nasiru el-Rufai and published in some national dailies”.
Bala stated that it was his pedigree in the bureau that influenced his appointment, contrary to insinuations that he was brought from the outside and made the boss at BPE in 2003.
Bala said that he had worked at the bureau for five years (1992-1997) first as special assistant to the late Dr. Hamza Zayyad, the then chairman of the Technical Committee for Privatisation and Commercialisation (TCPC) – an offshoot of the BPE – and later (from 1993) as the director of Research and Publications at the BPE.
“Thus, I was very knowledgeable on the affairs of the BPE at the time of my appointment as D-G, apart from my academic and practical experience on privatisation, given my doctoral degree work on privatisation and involvement with privatisation implementation in Japan from 1984 to 1990”, he said.
Bala also denied ever being investigated at any time in the bureau for corruption or that he was sacked as a result as alleged by el-Rufai.
“I was never at any point in time investigated for corrupt practices or any other misconduct for that matter while I was at the BPE or at any other time in my private and professional life,” he said.
