Reps probe seized late Abacha’s properties, other past leaders

The House of Representatives on Monday directed the Presidential Committee on Alienation of Federal Government’s Property to provide reports of all assets seized from the former Head of State, late General Sani Abacha and other past leaders.

Chairman, Ad-hoc Committee on Abandoned Properties, Hon. Ademorin Kuye gave the directive while ruling at the end of the investigative hearing into the Federal Government’s abandoned properties across the country, including the multi-billion naira public assets belonging to Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and Voice of Nigeria (VON) located in Lagos, Enugu, Kano and other parts of the country.

Some of the properties allegedly sold and leased by FRCN management, include: FRCN Lagos Zonal Office, 30 hectares of land in Kano State, and No 3 Savage Crescent GRA Enugu property which is under litigation.

The lawmakers also expressed concerns over the utilization of N100 million paid on a property allegedly acquired by Seaman for 10 years without taking over, as affirmed by the Presidential Committee.

Speaking earlier, PIC Secretary, Bala Sanusi argued that it will be cumbersome for the Committee to inform all the MDAs of their intention to sell off or lease out the over 25,000 property handed over to it through the report of the Oluwole Rotimi committee.

He disclosed that some of the properties belonging to the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Nigerian Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) and Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) are currently being leased by Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

Mr. Sanusi said: “If you permit me, I will inform this gathering that the mandate of this committee is by the President in Council. Council gave us the mandate to lease Federal Government property in Nigeria and outside Nigeria. We are not selling, we are leasing and after the expiration of the lease, the property will revert back to government.

“The mandate was initially restricted to Lagos. But later, Council expanded the mandate of the committee to other states except the FCT. We have been exercising this mandate for a long time.

“The properties were transferred to us via a Oluwole Rotimi commission of enquiry and we have been working on this data. We were given over 25,000 federal government property to lease out and these cut across all MDAs and federal government establishment.

“If we say we will go back and start informing every Ministry or parastatal that we are going to sell their property, that will be cumbersome and that was not what government asked us to do. We were told these are the property, go and lease them out.”

Hon Kuye said: “Consequent upon our request, we requested for information on all Federal Government assets that were sold; that were yet to be sold; that are in the process of releasing their title documents. The ones that are under litigation, the status of the litigation, the ones that have injunctions on them and the ones that are under threat of being taken over by the State Governments.

“We requested for all those information and in 2020 you furnished us with this compendium of properties as offered in all the states of the federation on A to Z. we commend you for this effort. However, in the course of our investigation wherein we gave copies of all these your report to members. We gave them to some members from River state, from Lagos State, Kaduna, Kogi state and all over the federation. We discovered that some of the properties you mentioned here have not been paid for. According to you, some 15% sold, 10$ payment, 5$ payment, 15% payment and according to the guideline, it says that 180 days after the initial paymet of 15% if a buyer does not complete the payment, the transaction shall be cancelled and the offeree will forfeit his 15% to federal Government and the peroperty will be re-offered to another person.

“We discovered that in your report, many of the properties you told us and reported to us that have not been sold, have in fact been sold.

“The ones that you said are vacant are not really vacant, some of them are occupied. But I think time is far spent, so what we are going to request of you is that: you furnish this committee with an up to date report of assets of Federal Government that are now been sold, those yet to be sold, those under litigation; the total amount from the sales, for each sale and how it has been remitted and the evidence of remittance.

“We equally want you to furnish us with report on assets that are not even included in this your first report that the committee has pointed out to you.

“You know some of our consultants have come up with reports concerning properties that you said are not with Federal Government which you yourself said you are not aware of.

“We want a report on all seized assets by former leaders particularly from Abacha, within and outside the shores. We noticed that the submission you made here did not include the leased properties, we need you to furnish us with the report on those properties and the status report on them.

“We need to know whether those properties we are talking about have any tile document on them and the ones that do not have title,” Hon. Kuye said.

In his presentation, FRCN Director General, Mansur Liman affirmed that the properties allegedly sold and leased by FRCN management, include: FRCN Lagos Zonal Office, 30 hectares of land in Kano State, and No 3 Savage Crescent GRA Enugu property which is under litigation.

He explained that the agency bought the Lagos property in 2010 from the Special Presidential Committee on Abandoned Properties and later sold it to Seaman Tech Co Ltd Idumota Lagos before it was gutted by fire.

He further told the probe panel that he made enquiries at the Corporate Affairs Commission CAC on the property and was they confirmed that the Special Presidential Committee on Abandoned Properties had sold the property.

He said:” I made enquiries at the CAC and some names came up. I showed the documents to the honourable Minister and he said that it is a government building and further said he will take it up at the Federal Executive Council (FEC).”

On the Kano landed property of the agency, he said that the property is about 30 hectares of land adding that the report the agency has is that some elements have started selling some parts of the land to build estates.

He added that the property was handed over to the Kano State Government by the military government after a coup.

On the Enugu property, he disclosed that the property was leased out at N20 million to Innoson Technical Co Ltd and a memorandum of understanding was signed by the Minister.

The lawmakers also expressed concerns over the utilization of N100 million paid on a property allegedly acquired by Seaman for 10 years without taking over, as affirmed by the Presidential Committee.

The Presidential Committee disclosed that some of the properties belonging to the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Nigerian telecommunication Limited (NITEL) and Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) are currently being leased by Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

To this end, the demanded for the valuation conducted by Federal Road Corporation of Nigeria, copies of Certificate of Occupancy given by the PIC and the letters, evidence of rent paid up to 2019 for further legislative scrutiny.

While ruling, Hon. Kuye resolved to constitute a 3-member sub-committee that will inspect some of the properties also demanded the valuation report, mandate extract, evidence of remittances to the federation account from the sale and all the documents relating to sales and leases.

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