A three-man panel set up by the Bureau of Public Enterprises that probed the controversial sale of the head office building of the defunct Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, the NECOM House, recommended the revocation of the sale by the government, saying the transaction was tainted by fraud.
The PUNCH had on April 6, 2011 exclusively reported that the skyscraper had been sold to West African Products Plc, a family business where a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, was an executive director before he was elected as a member of the federal legislature, for N4bn in controversial circumstances.
An ex-director of the BPE, Mr. Kashim Ibrahim, had in a statement last week alleged that the report of the committee faulted the action of the current director-general of the privatisation agency, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, and two other staff members of the agency for negligence, leading to the illegal sale of the building but the DG denied that he was indicted.
However, a copy of the report, which was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja on Thursday, showed that three officials of the agency were recommended for disciplinary action for their role in the sale of the building where the submarine cable, popularly known as SAT-3, landed.
The management of NITEL had written to the BPE protesting the purported sale of the building on 15 Marina, Lagos by the liquidator of the NITEL Staff Pension Fund, Olusola Adekanola, in contravention of a presidential directive stopping the transaction.
This led to the setting up of the probe committee headed by a former Director, Oil and Gas, BPE, Mr. Ibrahim Kashim. Other members were Mr. Vincent Akpotaire, then Acting Director, National Facilities and Agricultural Resources; and Mr. Ibrahim Babagana, then Acting Director, Electric Power.
The BPE officials involved in the transaction were Mr. Benjamin E Dikki (then Director, Information and Communication); Mr. Yunana Jackdell Malo (then Deputy Director, Oil and Gas Department); and Mr. Solomon Agoha (then Assistant Chief Enterprise Officer), who made submissions to the same effects.
The fourth person, Mr. Nats Kolo Nmadu, (Adviser, Finance and Accounts) was no longer working for the BPE by the time the probe panel sat.
The BPE workers were appointed members of the Committee of Inspection, which had responsibilities to relate and approve each stage of the sale of NITEL properties that had been handed over to the liquidator, Adekanola.
The report acknowledged that there was a communication gap between the then director-general and the line department in the BPE on the determination of the appropriate options for getting the liquidator to implement the presidential directive stopping the sale of the house.
However, it added that there was sufficient evidence that the liquidator and all the members of COI knew of the presidential approval, including the line director, but they did nothing to implement it.
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