Members of the House of Representatives joint Committee on Public Accounts and Finance probing the recovered public funds and assets from 1999-2016 on yesterday summoned the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, the Central Bank of Nigeria,CBN, Governor, Godwin Emefiele, the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu and others to explain their roles in the distribution and disbursements of all recovered loots.
Other agencies summoned that refused to appear before the Kingsley Chinda and Babangida Ibrahim led committees include: Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person, Special Presidential Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property, Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency Presidential Committee on the Recovery of Assets (PCAR) Minister of Finance/Ministry of Finance Central Bank of Nigeria, Special Fraud Unit, Nigeria Police Force and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Chief Registrar of High Court of the 36 States and High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Registered Auctioneers of the Economic and Financial Crimes, Registered Auctioneers of the Nigeria Customs Service Registered Auctioneers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Federal Inland Revenue Service and All Persons whose Assets were Forfeited.
This came up on a day the Nigerian Association of Auctioneers claimed management and handling of recovered assets in the country had been marred by lack of proper documentation and coordination by government agencies.
The Association stated this while appearing before the joint committees on Pubic Accounts and Finance, investigating the recovered loots and assets since 1999 to 2016.
Chairman of the Association of Auctioneers, Musa Kra’ah told the hearing that while some agencies had cooperated with his group in trying to auction government seized assets, lack of inter-agency cooperation had hindered the process of carrying out the exercise.
He cited an instance where the association entered into an agreement with the EFCC to auction some recovered assets after which they were told to go and wait for letters of authorisation to auction.
He however, said that before the letters could come, the Ministry of Defence had engaged some of its members to auction the same items listed by the EFCC as things to be auctioned on its behalf.
