Gani addressing the press
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Tuesday, April 05, 2005
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PRESS STATEMENT
ON
THE IKOYI FRAUD OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PROPERTIES
The Ikoyi scandal on Federal Government properties has blown open the core of corruption involving all arms of government - judicial, legislature and executive.
What has happened in this scandal brazenly negates Section 15 (5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 which provides that:
"15 (5) The State shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power."
The sale of government properties held in trust for the people of Nigeria at Ikoyi confirms the pervasive corruption in the corridors of power and has deflated both the bogey of monetisation and the ruse of privatization policies of Obasanjo's regime in a most damning and condemnable manner. The list of so called purchasers included Judges in high places, policy makers in the executives, law makers at the highest levels, Governors of States and the commercial running dogs and agents of the powers that be.
Suddenly the exposure has catapulted Ikoyi into corrupt albatross of this regime.
The dismissal of the Minister of Housing does not satisfy all the questions that are begging for immediate answers, notably:
- Why was the list of bidders not published in full before any bidding was done, if due process and transparency were ever considered?
- What was the estate valuation of each of the houses, which the Federal Government sold in Ikoyi and who did the valuation?
- When was the bidding done and why was it done secretly and not openly and above all where was it done?
- Which body, institution or committee was in charge of the whole transaction including the bidding process?
- Why was the result of the bidding not published in the Newspapers as advertisement by the Federal Government?
- Why was it necessary to sell at all when so many government institutions including Universities, Hospitals, etc etc needed education and health accommodation in Lagos, particularly at Ikoyi?
- Why did the Federal Government not exclude those who are morally incompetent to bid? For example, Head of State and his family, Vice President and his family, Ministers and their families, Officials of the Presidency and their families, Members of National Assembly and their families, Governors and their families, Commissioners of State and their families, Judges and their families, from Supreme Court to the High Court. These categories of public officers hold the executive, legislative and judicial powers of the country and they are morally incapacitated to bid for such Federal Government houses
- Why did the Federal Government not lift the veil of incorporation of those limited liability companies, which were involved in the biddings, because if the veil is removed in each case the true directors and shareholders would have been exposed and some of these may be in Aso Rock, the Presidency, the Legislature, the Executive or the Judiciary. These companies, which constitute more than one third of the list of those who bought the Federal Government houses, should be exposed to enable Nigerians know who their real owners are. Until that is done, the true identity of each bidder is still shrouded in corporate mystery.
- Why should any public officer who is involved in this scandal not made to explain the source of the money paid in part or in whole for this sordid property business?
SOLUTION
We demand that a Commission of Inquiry be set up immediately by the government of General Olusegun Obasanjo to look into all the ramifications of this Ikoyi Fraud, on the Nigerian people and the committee or commission must sit in public. Nothing must be hidden under the carpet, if indeed Mr. President has truly started his anti-Corruption war.
CHIEF GANI FAWEHINMI LL.D, SAN
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