On Monday, the Ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives on the disposal of public property commenced an investigation into the Federal Ministry of Water Resources over its disposal of assets belonging to the 12 River Basin Development Authority in 2018.
This came as the committee summoned six key MDAs to appear before it to clarify the role they played in the sale of public assets at their disposal.
The invited agencies are the Nigeria Ports Authority, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, the Nigerian Railway Corporation, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Anambra/Imo River Basin Development Authority, the Osun River Development Authority, and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.
The Managing Directors of the River Basin Development Authority who showed up before the committee on Monday said the Ministry of Water Resources took charge of the disposal of the property because the agency had no governing boards in 2018.
The leadership of the RBDA also informed the committee that the ministry advertised and selected auctioneers who disposed of the assets, adding that it would be in the place of the ministry to provide answers to some of the questions raised by the committee.
The Chairman of the committee and a member representing Owan Federal Constituency of Edo State, Julius Ihonbvere, faulted the submissions of the MDs, stressing that the committee was left with no option but to invite the ministry.
“I want to assure you for now that we are not very satisfied, and that is because you did not preside over this process. We are not satisfied with the disconnects in some of the documents; we will require that you come back after we deduce some of those documents directly from the ministry on behalf of your agencies. We will also invite the ministry to deal with us directly,” he said.
