The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on the investigation of Federal Government’s abandoned properties nationwide Tuesday put the value of such properties at N230 billion.
The Chairman of the Committee, Ademorin Kuye, who disclosed this at the panel’s inauguration in Abuja, said the figure was a conservative estimate of the properties located in Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Kano, Kaduna, and other cities and carried out by the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).
According to him, the House had on March 12 considered a motion on the abandoned federal government’s properties and consequently constituted a 17-member Ad-Hoc committee on the matter.
Kuye said: “The committee is to investigate the use and current status of such properties and to report its findings to the house.
“At the said session, the house expressed concern that many of such properties located in almost all the states of the federation were abandoned, especially after the Federal Government’s hurried relocation to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“Many of these properties are now serving as safe havens for criminals. Some are illegally occupied, fraudulently transferred, and wholesomely abandoned.
“It is on a record that some of the properties are currently being used by individuals and corporate bodies without remitting any revenue, while their managers, in name, have not accounted for the revenue yield.
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“The exercise is pursuant to Sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 which empowers the House to investigate and expose corruption and waste.”
The lawmaker promised that the House would take necessary legislative steps to address national economic challenges, poverty, infrastructure decline, misuse of resources, revenue leakage, corruption, and other societal ills.
