The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has been urged to stop looters from recovering their loot in the ongoing auction of seized and forfeited assets by 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.
While noting that his panel had earlier advised swift disposal of stolen loot, particularly fixed assets, the chairman of the committee, Adejoro Adeogun, acknowledged the potential of thieves retrieving the forfeited assets by proxy.
However, Adeogun remarked that the committee’s inquiry would go on despite the sales.
The EFCC began inspecting and auctioning 649 forfeited automobiles in nine states and the Federal Capital Territory on December 6, 2022, using appointed auctioneers.
Other assets up for auction included 15 vessels and barges in Rivers, Delta, and Lagos states, as well as 39 mobile phones, 11 laptop computers, and other electronics.
The EFCC had listed for auction 144 luxury homes and lands seized from convicted politicians, public officials, business moguls, and internet fraudsters as proceeds of their corrupt practices, which ranged from money laundering and fraud to misappropriation of funds and fraudulent diversion, among other things, according to an exclusive report by The PUNCH on December 27, 2022.
However, Adeogun lamented that the House lacked the authority to decide how the assets should be sold or to whom they should be sold in an interview with The PUNCH on Tuesday.
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 legislator said that until a new administration assumes office in a few months, the assets shouldn’t be abandoned.
In addition to delivering an interim report to the House, Adeogun claimed that his committee had completed “most of what we need to do,” adding that the final report would be presented following the general elections.
Initially, committee members had opposed the auction of the assets at the center of the investigation.
