An ad hoc House committee is questioning the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) about the sale of 16 vessels for N156.24 million in 2019.
ML Pategi was sold for N3.2 million, ML Misau for N1.06 million, PB Kabba for N5.4 million, SPB 3 for N54,000, and PC Shelleng for N48,000.
Documents presented to the committee also revealed that NPA offered exotic vehicles such as Ranger Pick-Ups, Toyota Coaster Buses, Toyota Corolla automobiles, Toyota Hiace buses, and Toyota Camry Salon automobiles at low costs.
According to the documents, NPA sold 45 million other things at the Apapa Port in Lagos in 2022 for N1, earning N45 million after the sales.
The property was sold via invoice on August 9, 2022.
The NPA also sold 10,800,700 more things at N1 each at its Apapa Dockyard in 2021, earning N10.800 million in the process.
The documents also revealed that NPA sold 20 million scrap metals at the Kirikiri Terminal II in Apapa for N1 each, generating N20 million.
Prof Julius Ihonvbere, head of the committee, postponed the committee’s meeting on Wednesday till September 25 to allow NPA officials to prepare replies to queries posed to them.
On the rescheduled day, the officials were instructed to bring a list of properties scheduled for auction as well as evaluation reports.
Ihonvbere also requested that NPA authorities provide the committee with the identities of registered property valuers engaged in the transactions.
The officials were also instructed to produce the valuers’ findings as well as government consent for the sale of the property from the Bureau of Public Procurement’s office.
The officials were also instructed to submit Certificates of No Objection to the sales by competent government authorities, as well as documentation of payments of accrued revenue into the coffers of the Federal Government.
Ihonvbere also directed NPA officials to submit bidding procedures, press publications, selection procedures, and any other documents that could aid the committee’s probe.
The committee’s mandate is to investigate the degree of illicit auctioning of public property and non-remittance of revenue realized into the Federal Government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund from 2010 to 2022.