More than $20m being proceeds of the controversial sales of Federal Government property in the United States is still withheld in a US bank account years after the sales of the houses in Washington, DC and Maryland.
The Empowered Newswire reports on Saturday said the development had deprived federation account of a substantial chunk of money running into over N20bn.
Nigerian diplomatic sources revealed that under the Federal Government financial regulations, such monies ought to have been immediately transferred into the federation account especially since Nigerian missions abroad were no longer permitted to reassign government funds and resources from one budget head to another.
The sources disclosed that the returns of the sales are currently at the Nigerian Embassy account at M and T Bank, a regional bank in the US with international branches outside the US.
The four Nigerian property were sold and funds received by the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC between 2003 and 2007, but the sources said the proceeds of the sales were being retained by the Embassy under two successive Ambassadors on the grounds that the Federal Government has been starving the missions of funds.
The Embassy, it was learnt, has not spent the actual principal said to be well over $20m, and has been drawing on the interests from the deposit to keep the embassy running.
Four Embassy houses were sold between the early years of President Obasanjo‘s first term and in 2007. The property included buildings that housed the Nigerian Embassy‘s operations.
The first property sold was an abandoned property on M and Wootin Street in the U.S. capital.
That building used to serve as the Embassy‘s offices in Washington, DC. It was sold for about $2.5 million.
The second property sold was the Embassy office on 16th Street, sold for $7 million, while another one on M. Street was sold for $12 million. They were both abandoned after Nigeria built a bigger embassy office in the U.S capital city located on International Court in Washington, DC. Former Vice President Abubakar Atiku commissioned the new office in 2003.
The fourth property sold was the Ambassador‘s residence on Connecticut Street, close to Washington, DC but actually located in the adjoining state of Maryland. The residence was sold because it was considered a security concern being too close to the main road.
All the fourth sales were done when Prof. George Obiozor held sway as Nigeria‘s envoy, but even after Obiozor left and General Oluwole Rotimi resumed, the money was still not released to the Federal Government account.
The sources alleged that a former President was actually very active in the management of the entire sales transactions and that he personally okayed each of the sales before they were completed, at times approving the sale prices. But it was not clear whether the former president also played a role in the violation of the financial regulations that required the immediate transfer of the proceeds into the federation account.
proceeds from the property sales to run the embassy.
But diplomats argued that when ”virement” was outlawed under Buhari-Idiagbon, the federal government amply provided resources and funds to the embassies. In recent times however, diplomats disclosed that Foreign Affairs Ministry budget has been suffering inadequate allocations making it very difficult for Nigerian embassies not to resort to the practice of ”virements.”