Lagos to Implement Report on Illegal Sale of Govt Assets

· Beneficiaries of illegal sale face criminal prosecution

·Report recommends seizure of under-valued property

By Gboyega Akinsanmi

Findings yesterday revealed that the Lagos State Government had resolved to implement a report recently submitted by a panel of inquiry it set up to investigate the sale of government assets between 2006 and 2016 to which the state government had lost billions of naira.

As part of the report recommendations, the panel recommended that the state government has been advised to invite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to unravel several other transactions that have been identified by the panel of inquiry.

Different sources in the State House disclosed the plan of the state government to THISDAY yesterday on the need to fully implement the report of the panel, noting that the report listed over 100 assets that were affected, the names of their buyers and the locations of the assets.

One of the government officials, who spoke with THISDAY in confidence, said the report was submitted after high-powered panel of inquiry set up in late 2016 by the state Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, to investigate the sale of its assets in prime areas completed its work.

She said the state government had investigated the sale of its assets because they were sold below market value and that the colossal amount of funds involved runs into billions of naira.

The government official acknowledged that the state government lost in revenue due “to the unacceptable process by which the sales were conducted,” noting that there was no going back on the implementation of the report.

According to her, the affected assets are located in high-profile areas, where decision-makers, captains of industries, top government functionaries and political actors among others often crave to build their homes and offices.

The government official identified the high-profile areas to include Ikeja GRA, Magodo, Ikoyi, Lekki and other prime locations in the state, where government assets were sold below the market value.

She explained that the assets were disposed at abysmal (or give-away) prices and obviously against public interest, which in her words, stoked the interest of the present administration to investigate and review the process by which the assets were sold.

Aside the sale of the affected assets below the market value, it was also gathered that the government assets did not follow due process and standard procedure of sale.

She said what culminated in the resolve of the state government to investigate the sale of its assets was overriding public interest, lamenting that some of these assets “were sold as low as N20 million.

“The source explained that the government and people of the state have been short-changed considering the abysmal prices the assets were sold.

“Generally, we have a situation where government properties in prime locations were sold at give-away prices. The assets were abysmally under-valued. Besides, the assets were sold below the actual market value.”

Another government official noted that no serious government “will allow such sales against public interest to stand. I do not think these sales can stand. This is why the state government decided to set up a panel of inquiry to look into the sale of those assets.”

He therefore noted that the report had indeed been submitted already and implementation had begun with review of sales of properties that were sold grossly under market value.

The official cited one of the test cases under review, which he said was discovered that two wings of a 5-bedroom semi-detached house located around Ikeja GRA valued at hundreds of millions of naira was in 2010 offered to a certain Funmi Smith of Debam Mega Solutions Limited.

He added that the property was sold at a sum far less than half of its market value, but seven years after the offer barely half of the offered sum had not been paid to the state government coffers by the company.