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The House of Representatives Adhoc Committee investigating the multi-trillion naira abandoned Federal Government owned moveable and immovable properties across the country as well as foreign countries has sought to support a d assistance of Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu to recover such property currently being occupied by unauthorized persons.
Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Ademorin Kuye who led other members of the committee on a visit to the Lagos state governor said the House was.conscious of the fact that the task before the committee cannot be achieved in Lagos without the support of the state government.
He acknowledged earlier complaints by the state government on some of the property which should belong to Lagos state and the threat to head to court, pointing out that there was no need for the state government to go to court as the committee will do everything possible to ensure that justice is done.
He said “We are going to need your cooperation. We understand the federal creation of our constitution and we understand that we cannot successfully do this in Lagos without your support and cooperation and that we have come to seek for.
“We will still be coming back to Lagos to look at some of these property and then, we can sit together. I know that your excellency has spoken to me on a number of time on this and I said there was no need for the state to go court to recover some of these things since we are here to ensure that justice is done to both the Federal Government and the state government and that is where we are right now.”
Kuye said the committee discovered that some of the property were being occupied by retired civil servants, some of which have started transferring the property to their children, with the children not knowing that the said property belong to the government.
He said “this Ad-hoc Committee is a function of several complaints laid before the House some few years ago, about Federal Government’s properties lying around all the States of the Federation; particularly those Federal Government’s properties that are being occupied now by hoodlums, some by unauthorised persons, some by retired civil servants who are now transferring the properties as if is their own inheritance even to their children.
“Their children did not know that the properties do not belong to their fathers. So they think those properties are actually theirs.
“We felt that these are properties that should be reclaimed and some that should be put up for sale, so that money can come in into government’s coffer, both at the state and at the federal levels.
“So that we can have a win-win situation, remove the security problem that these abandoned properties are constituting to State Governments, and at the same time bring revenue to the government; and make useful enterprise out of all of those properties. That is why the Ad-hoc Committee was formed”.
Speaking on some of the property owned by the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), he said: “You will recall that during the privatisation of NEPA the core asset of NEPA, offices, the machines and all of that were transferred to private owners. While an agency was formed by the Presidency to act as a vehicle for alienation of non-core assets those are the Estates, the residential premises and all of that.
“We equally have the list generated by the Presidential Implementation Committee on Alienation of most of these properties. Some of those properties, your excellency would recall during monetisation exercise that took place under President Obasanjo and since then most of those properties have been sold to Civil servants who have retired and all of that, why some of those which are left behind, we are still looking at as to how we are going to dispose of them.”
While pledging the support of the state government to endure the success of the committee work, the Lagos state governor asked the committee to be fair to the state in it’s dealings as some of the government property belong to both the federal and Lagos state government.
Governor Sanwo-Olu said “the question is why Lagos and why not Lagos and I’m sure we are all students of history. Certainly you cannot forget the role Lagos has played in fusing and bringing together the country called Nigeria.
“From very historic time even before Jaja of Opobo was adopted it was an old colony of Lagos it was the oldest colony in all of this country. Lagos had existed before Nigeria came into existence, before the amalgamation, Lagos had been two centuries before then.
“Given that long history of Lagos, I’m sure the forefathers and the colonial masters find it appropriate to designate this place as the first federal state government and Lagos that burden for several years and we are indeed grateful to be part of the developnment of this country that Lagos has been. And to look at the perspective where we are seated here, it’s a colonial story.
“We see as time to not necessarily right the wrong, but just putting thing in proper context and proper perspective. We all know that the history of our democracy has been both military rule and civilian rule.
“Lagos had had to carry the brunt for a significant amount of time before we birth Abuja. Given those stories into perspective, Lagos had become home to a lot of Federal Government’s assets as well as some liabilities at some point.
“So when you look at the assets also look at the liabilities so we have to be able to kill both of them. We are aware of the great work you’re doing.
“Our submission, our request would be for the Committee to be very very discerning to be able to view Lagos with that compassion. So while that happen from our records, there are some assets that we know very clearly that it’s because of how governance has been in our country, there were no proper delineation between the state and federal government assets at some point.
“And in fact, a lot of the State’s assets I don’t want to use the word confiscated but we’re transferred to Federal not because people wanted to be mischievous but because it was very convenient at that time.”