The Nigeria Association of Auctioneers has revealed that properties seized from corrupt Nigerians which have successfully gone through court litigation are now ready to be auctioned to the public.

Saliu Garba, Caretaker Committee Chairman of the Association of Auctioneers, revealed this to journalists in Abuja on Sunday.

Properties to be auctioned by the EFCC include vehicles, vessels, petroleum products, landed property and other items recovered from corrupt individuals.

The commission has secured the nod of the court to auction them.

Garba, who lauded EFCC for the pre-qualification exercise, urged the agency not to entertain contractors who may pose as auctioneers.

“We express our firm gratitude to the EFCC on the way it organised pre-qualification bid for auctioning of its property. The process was very transparent for all to see. Although the Police, Army and FAAN follow due process but we want other MDAs to emulate the EFCC.

“Our prayer is that they use licenced auctioneers for the auctioning because we saw contractors who submitted bids with their companies but they are not auctioneers; we know our members, auctioning is not an all comers’ affair,” Garba stated.

He criticised the Nigeria Customs Service which he said was advocating e-auctioning while collecting pre-qualification fee from registered auctioneers.

According to him, auctioning world over, including the e-version, is carried out by auctioneers, and wondered why the Customs service wants to conduct the process on its own.

Garba alleged that the Custom Service management collected registration fees from auctioneers across the country only to come up with a new policy that it wants to conduct e-auctioning; throwing it open to all comers to participate in the process.

He urged Nigerians to shun the Customs’ e-auctioning pending the outcome of their case challenging the process in court. (Independent)