House Moves to Probe Sale of Assets Belonging to 12 River Basin Authorities

Juliet Akoje in Abuja

The House of Representatives ad hoc Committee on the Disposal of Public Property is set to investigate the Federal  Ministry of Water Resources over the disposal of assets belonging to the 12 River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs).

The managing directors of the RBDAs who appeared before the committee  yesterday stated that the ministry was responsible for sale of property in 2018 since the agencies had no governing board.

The leadership of the RBDAs revealed to the committee that the ministry was responsible for the advertisement and selection of auctioneers who carried out the auction of the properties, saying most of the questions about the auction could only be answered by the ministry.

But the Chairman of the committee and House Leader, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, said the committee was not satisfied with the explanation from the managing directors, adding that the committee had no choice but to invite the ministry.

Ihonvbere said: “I want to assure you for now that we are not very satisfied and that is because you did not preside over this process. We are not satisfied with the disconnects in the contents in some of the documents.

“We will require that you come back after we deduce some of those documents directly from the ministry on behalf of your agencies. We will also invite the ministry to deal with us directly.

“The committee is out to investigate alleged illegal auctioning of government by Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency(NIMASA) Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) RBDA, Railway Corporation and Nigeria Customs.

“The committee will rely on the relevant sections of the constitution, the Standing Orders of the House and inherent jurisdiction of the National Assembly to achieve it mandate.

“In the course of this work, we have written letters to all the agencies concerned requesting for information on the subject matter, and many of you did not bother to respond to our letter.

“We hope to physically visit the agencies, examine your books and conduct physical inspection of all public properties acquired to determine the ones sold and procedures adopted for the exercise.

“ As the representatives of the Nigerian people we will deploy all constitutional means to ensure that we achieve the mandate of the House,” he vowed.

The Managing Director of Lower Niger Basin Development Authority, Dr Adeniyi Aremu earlier noted that he and other colleagues were appointed in 2018, adding that that the process of auctioning of the items in their custody had already commenced before they assumed duty.

According to him, the auction process began in 2017 and because the authorities did not have boards at the time, the process was conducted by the ministry of water resources.

Aremu however said that documents on the process that were in the possession of the agency had been submitted to the committee, while the entire details of the process  were with the ministry which conducted and presided over the auction process.