The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Assessment
and Status of All Recovered Loot Movable and Immovable Assets from 2002 to 2020
by Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria for Effective Efficient
Management and Utilisation has urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
to prevent looters from recovering their loot in the ongoing auction of seized
and forfeited assets.
The committee’s Chairman, Adejoro Adeogun, while noting that
his panel had earlier recommended speedy disposal of recovered loot, especially
fixed assets, expressed the possibility of looters recovering the forfeited
assets by proxy.
Adeogun, however,
stated that the committee would continue with its investigation despite the
sales.
The EFCC on December
6, 2022, commenced inspection and auction of 649 forfeited vehicles located
across nine states and the Federal Capital Territory through appointed
auctioneers.
Other assets listed
for auction were 15 vessels and barges in Rivers, Delta and Lagos states, about
39 mobile phones, 11 laptops and other devices.
Recall that on December 27, 2022, that the EFCC had listed
for auction 144 luxury houses and lands seized from convicted politicians,
public servants, business moguls and internet fraudsters as proceeds of their
corrupt practices ranging from money laundering and fraud to misappropriation
of funds and fraudulent diversion, among others.
Adeogun, in an interview with our correspondent on Tuesday,
however, decried that the House does not have the powers to determine how the
assets should be disposed of, or to whom they should be sold.
He said, “We are aware. Part of what we wrote in our interim
report is the delay in the auctioning. Some of these assets were seized seven
to eight years ago. They have depreciated. It was our concern then that they
were depreciating, so we advised that it should be done fast especially now
that the Federal Government needs money to fund the budget. It is to make sure
that they recover as much value as can be recovered.
“Look at most of the tankers and the ships that were seized.
Some of them have lost up to 80 to 90 per cent of their value due to poor
storage.
“Then, the enabling
law allows the (anti-graft) agencies to auction directly. The EFCC is supposed
to auction what it seized, subject to due process.”
Speaking on the possibility of looters buying back their
loot through the auction, Adeogun said, “That is possible but we in the
National Assembly have no control over that. We can’t control what they do but
what we have to do is to ensure that they did the right thing.”
The lawmaker stated that the assets should not remain
abandoned till another government takes power in a few months.
Adeogun stated that
his committee had done “most of what we need to do,” including presenting an
interim report to the House, while the comprehensive one would be laid after
the general elections.
Members of the
committee had initially opposed the auction of the assets at the centre of the
probe.
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