Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property has recovered property in a highbrow area of the Federal Capital Territory for the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).
Chairman of the Panel, Mr Okoi Obono-Obal, performed the handing over Ceremony to NBTE on Wednesday, in Abuja.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the building which houses the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) was on May 6, placed under investigation by the panel.
The property, Murjanatu House, which is managed by D. B Manga Nigeria Limited, also accommodates branches of First Bank Nigeria Limited and Standard Chartered Bank Limited.
Obono-Obla said that the property which is situated on Plot 445 Maitama Cadastral Zone AO5 in Abuja, was initially allocated to the NBTE.
He said that the property which was taken over through shady means by a highly placed Nigerian was converted from a government property into a private firm.
“This district is allocated exclusively for government establishments.
“In law, you cannot revoke a property or right of occupancy given to a public institution and give it to a private person.
“So the purported revocation in 2007 was shady and we investigated and found out that it was shady,” he said.
The chairman further explained that the property became a subject of investigation following a petition to the panel.
He said: “We have recovered this building and we are handing it over to the board.
“You have to find out who the tenants in the building have been paying revenue to so that we can recover the revenue and give back to the board to strengthen its functions.”
He said that the efforts of the panel, was a practical demonstration of the resolve of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to fight corruption.
“We are going to fight corruption no matter who is involved.
“The President said that his first duty is Nigeria. We who are working with him, we will do the bidding of the president in the fight against corruption,” he said.
Executive Secretary of NBTE, Dr Masa’udu Kazaure, who expressed delight over the recovery, said that the property was taken over from the board since 2007.
“Since then, NBTE has suffered a setback in its progress towards development of technical and vocational education.
“Now that the project has been recovered for us, we have started the process of acquiring the whole building.
“Originally, the property is supposed to be a technology house for the construction of an 11-Storey building.
“However, at the conceptual stage, the place was taken over from us and allocated to a private individual who had developed the building,” Kazaure said.
He appreciated President Buhari for his giant strides in the fight against corruption. (NAN)