Bizarre! FG Recovers 301 Houses From 2 Public Servants – ICPC

• Identifies real estate as conduit for illicit funds

BY EDMOND ODOK – Following its assertion of recovering 301 houses from two public officers, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has identified real estate as a conduit for Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) in Nigeria.

“The Commission has, for example, a case in which it recovered 241 houses from a public officer and another one in which we recovered 60 buildings on a large expanse of land from public officer”, the anti-graft agency Chairman, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye (SAN) revealed in Abuja recently.

Making a presentation at the House of Representatives investigative hearing on corruption in the real estate sector, the ICPC Chairman said; “the real estate sector is globally recognised as attractive to IFF largely because it is partially informal, not properly regulated and so easily open to abuse.”

At the session that had ICPC and its sister organisation, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), fingering some government officials as culprits, Prof Owasanonye said: “Public officers acquire estates in pseudonyms to conceal the illegal origin of funds.

“This is made possible by the absence of proper documentation, the registration of titles to land and estates in the country, and the non-enforcement of beneficial ownership standards.”

According to him; “A tour around Abuja, especially within the metropolis and the central area, would show a lot of estates that are built up but empty. If they had been constructed with funds that were borrowed at market rates, I don’t think any investor would leave such proprieties empty.”

Further advancing his submission that real estate has regrettably become a playing field for inappropriate financial dealings and fraudulent behaviour among public officers and civil servants in the country, Owasanoye said; “It is suspected that some of those estates have been used to launder ill-gotten public funds. If not so, one way or the other, the owners would have put them to profitable use.”

He assured that the Commission would not relent in ensuring that public officers involved in such unwholesome practices are identified and brought to book for their crimes against the country and Nigerians.