By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has received overwhelming commendation from auctioneers for its successful assets disposal exercise, describing it as “transparent”.
According to a statement by the Spokesperson for the Commission, Demola Bakare, the 2024 exercise, which the Commission conducted Thursday at the auditorium of the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja had forty auctioneers in attendance.
The balloting exercise for the assets, which was organised by the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Department (POCD) of the Commission saw twenty-six out of the forty auctioneers winning various categories of assets disposed by the Commission on behalf of the federal government. The assets included plots of land, buildings and vehicles.
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Acting Director of POCD, Michael Agboro, revealed that “a total of one hundred and nineteen companies submitted expression of interest. More than half have fallen by the way” for not meeting the desired requirements.
He told those who made it to the balloting process that, “You are partners with the Commission to ensure that the government gets value for forfeited assets.
The assets were seized from those who stole from the common heritage so, you are to sell these assets so that the government can recoup what they stole”.
Agboro further informed the participants about the nature of the balloting exercise and read to them some ground rules before the process began.
During the balloting exercise, forty envelopes were dropped into a ballot box for participants to pick their ballot and display to the audience and the officials.
Photos of items won by the successful auctioneers were also displayed alongside.
At the end of the exercise, a total of twenty-six assets were won. The assets, which were divided into twenty lots to ballot based on certain criteria had four moveable assets, six paired assets and 13 stand-alone assets.
The four moveable assets were situated at the Commission’s headquarters while the rest were in the various states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Gombe, Nasarawa, Akwa-Ibom, Ekiti, Kaduna, Sokoto and Rivers States respectively.
A major highlight of the event was the signing of a register by the winners against their company name to show their acceptance.
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