The Secretary of Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede has charged auctioneers
handling the disposal of 244 vehicles forfeited to the Federal Government
by illegal oil dealers, to be fair, open and accessible to every
interested member of the public.
He gave the charge on Friday, December 20, 2019 in Port
Harcourt, Rivers State while inspecting all the eleven( 11) bidding slots
allocated to shortlisted auctioneers for the exercise. According to
him, transparency and equal opportunity of bidding are the hallmarks of
every auction and the licensed operators must abide by the rules. “Let
everyone interested in any of the vehicles be given access to them. The bidding
must be open and free. There must be no hindrance of any kind”, he
said.
Olukoyede later went round all the bidding boards placed strategically at the
open ground of the Police Officers Wives Association, POWA, in the old
Government Reservation Area, G.R.A, Port Harcourt where the bidding
is holding and inspected vehicles displayed on each board. He
cautioned auctioneers against hiding any of the vehicles allocated to
them.
The auction exercise commenced yesterday in Port Harcourt, with the
unveiling of the eleven shortlisted auctioneers by the EFCC. The vehicles
being publicly auctioned were forfeited to the government through the
ruling of a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The forfeiture order was granted by Justice I. M Sani on July 5,
2019.
The auction of the vehicles is being conducted by the EFCC in conjunction with the Deputy Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court and the Department of Petroleum Resources.
