On Tuesday, thousands of prospective buyers descended upon the basketball court at the Lekan Salami Sports Complex in Adamasingba to place bids on automobiles in the sale of seized property organized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s Ibadan Zonal Command (EFCC).
The examination of the automobiles, which took place earlier on Monday, served as the prelude to the public auction sales.
According to The Nation, the Commission started the exercise on December 6 at the agency’s Lagos Command before extending it to the Zonal commands for greater participation.
At the Adamasingba stadium, where images of the goods up for sale were put on display so that members of the public could view them, hundreds of prospective purchasers had gathered as early as 8am.
Throughout the exercise, no fewer than 80 vehicles were auctioned.
Before the exercise began, the auctioneers answered the public’s queries and questions and explained how the auction worked.
The exercise was competitive and successful, with the highest bidder receiving the vehicles, according to a senior member of the Zonal Command who is aware of it but did not want to be identified.
He clarified that successful bidders must pay directly into the Federal Government account as part of the guidelines governing behavior.
Speaking on the activity, Aliyu Kiliya, National President of the Nigeria Association of Auctioneers, praised the Federal Government for supporting the sales of forfeited property and claimed that this is a legitimate way for the government to acquire money to satisfy specific demands.
Kiliya, who also serves as the representative for Aliyu A. Kiliya and Co. Auctioneering Nigeria Limited, which organized the Ibadan exercise and led other auctioneers, urged the government to continue the exercise’s sales and extend them to additional abandoned and forfeited assets in the various Ministeries, Departments, and Agencies of the government.
He expressed ecstasy at the big turnout of bidders and characterized the Ibadan exercise as transparent and calm. In addition, he added that a different arrangement had been devised to provide way for a second bidder who would be called in the event that the first bidder missed the payment deadline. He stated that successful bidders are required to pay within 48 hours to the Federal Government’s account.
He commended the Ibadan Zonal Command for ensuring a good maintenance culture of the assets while in their custody, saying such effort in no small way helped retain a good value for the vehicles.
Opinions were divided as to the transparency and conduct of the auction. While some bidders felt the prices at which the vehicles were brought to the auction were on the high side, others thought it was a competition in which the bidder who makes the biggest offer wins.
The majority of the vehicles, according to Sikirulai Olayiwola, who was successful in the effort, were sold for close to their current market worth. In order to make the upcoming exercise genuinely an auction, he encouraged the government to reduce the price to a level that is most affordable for the average person on the street.
Adeya Adedoyin, a different successful bidder, criticized the overwhelming presence of car dealers who, in his opinion, had flooded the bidding area to acquire vehicles at absurdly low prices.
Despite the enormous and significant turnout of bidders, he urged the government to devise measures to guarantee that only regular persons with honorable and sincere interest were forced to obtain vehicles in forthcoming auctions.
Sola Adelaja, who was unable to put a winning bid, expressed his disappointment with the exercise’s raucous atmosphere as well as the high prices paid for the vehicles.
He said that many of those who were successful in the exercise were people who would go and resell to make quick gains and claimed that the prices were not a representation of current economic realities.
