Udora Orizu
The House of Representatives yesterday queried the Directors-General of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Mansur Liman and his Voice of Nigeria Counterpart, Osita Okechukwu over the purported outright sales and leases of government properties in some parts of Nigeria.
Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee on Abandoned Properties, Hon. Ademorin Kuye and other members of the panel at an investigative hearing said that they had written to the two agencies in March 2020 separately requesting the documents on the sales as well as processes and proceeds of it.
The lawmakers requested the evidences of valuation of the sold or leased properties and hand over documents of the properties to find out the real reason for the sales and leases.
Some of the federal agencies properties said to have been sold or leased by the broadcast agency include Lagos Zonal Office of the FRCN, 30 hectares of land in Kano, and No 3 Savage Crescent GRA Enugu property of the agency said to be under litigation.
But the FRCN DG, in his presentation, said 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 said that he made enquires at the Corporate Affairs Commission on the property and they confirmed that the Special Presidential Committee on Abandoned Properties had sold the property.
He said: “I made enquiry at the CAC and some names came up. I showed the documents to the Minister and he said that it is a government building and further said he’ll take it up at the Federal Executive Council.”
On the Kano landed property, he explained that the agency has confirmed report that some elements had began 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.
Reacting, the committee chairman said that due to the complacency of the Kano State government, the lawmakers are yet to get reaction on the agency’s land issue in the state.
The lawmaker thereafter constituted some three-man sub-committee to inspect some of these properties.
