An Ad hoc Committee of the House of Representatives has invited the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and other stakeholders in the concession of Lagos International Trade Complex (LITC) over unrecovered N6.5 billion.
Other stakeholders include the Lagos International Trade Complex, Aulic Nigeria Ltd, and Plaza Owners Association, among others.
The committee which is investigating the lease of Federal Government owned assets made the resolution sequel to a unanimous adoption of a motion by Sani Bala (APC-Kano State) at a public hearing in Abuja on Tuesday.
The Director Admin and Human Resources in LITC, Francis Dajilak, told the committee that the complex was concessioned to Aulic Nigeria Ltd in 2007.
He said five major stakeholders including the Department of Security Service (DSS) existed in the complex before the concession.
Dajilak explained that after the concession, there were issues between the exiting stakeholders and the Aulic which delayed the implementation till 2008.
The director stated that between 2008 and 2017 when the contract was terminated, Olic did not remit funds to the Federal Government as agreed in the contract.
According to him, between 2008 and 2017 when the contract was terminated, Aulic Nigeria Ltd was owing to a tone of N6.5 billion.
The director said all effort to recover the funds after the termination of the contract proved abortive.
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Dajilak said upon recovering the complex, the entire place was in a mess and the EFCC was invested to recover the funds.
He told the committee that EFCC made the but later released owners of Aulic after few weeks with no amount paid into government coffers.
Dajilak noted that the LITC approached BPP to help recover the funds but no positive result has been achieved.
Counsel to Plaza Owners Association operating in the complex, Godson Okoye, told the committee that if the complex is well managed, it could generate N12 billion annually.
He requested that the committee should give the association few days to put their position into writing and submit to the committee.
Okoye said a lot was going wrong in the complex and a lot of their members had lost a lot of money.
The counsel said some big businessmen operating in the complex had relocated to neighbouring countries as a result of bad management.
In his ruling, the chairman of the committee, Dan Asuqu (PDP-Cross River), said the committee was interested in recovering the funds.
He said the committee was also intrested in protecting the interest of Nigerians who had invested monies in the complex.
“We will do all within our powers and the Constitution even if it means making heads roll or stepping on toes,” he said.
The chairman stated that the committee was also interesting in generating funds for the government, saying all will be done to ensure government makes more than N12 billion annually from the complex.
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