Sesan Olufowobi

Balogun is currently serving a six-month jail term at Kuje Prison in Abuja over his refusal to cooperate with the EFCC while he was being investigated for money laundering offences.

He is also facing another 56-count charge for corruption and money laundering.

Late last year, the EFCC had obtained the order of a court in Lagos to auction identified properties of the former police boss.

Saturday Punch gathered that the commission decided to auction the properties located in choice areas of Lagos and Abuja since it had established beyond doubt that the houses belonged to Balogun.

Our correspondent learnt that two registered government auctioneers had been approved by the EFCC to handle the first phase.

Sources said the auctioneers would soon place notices in national newspapers, announcing the auction.

They would give a 21-day notice before the auction would be held on a date which was not disclosed to Saturday Punch.

An EFCC official, who confirmed the auction, said that necessary paperwork had been finalised to pave the way for the sale. He, however, added that the auction may be done privately while other properties might be sold before the end of the year.

The houses include a duplex at VGC, Lekki, three houses at Ikoyi and a two-wing duplex at Magodo Estate in Lagos. There are four houses located at Garki and the other two duplexes in Asokoro, Abuja

During a tour of the houses in Lagos on Friday, our correspondents discovered that one of them was in the final stages of renovation. A worker at the site, who claimed ignorance of the owner of the property, said that it was abandoned for a long time and was being renovated for unknown reasons.

Saturday Punch also discovered that some of the properties were occupied.

When contacted, EFCC's Head of Media, Osita Nwaja, confirmed that the commission would dispose off Balogun's properties. He, however, said the auction would not be open to the public.

According to Nwaja, the EFCC would prefer to sell the houses to corporations or government parastatals that would manage them properly.

Nwaja said, we want to avoid a situation where a few people would be used as fronts to buy the properties and later hand them over to the person they are representing.

We are not conducting a public auction. What we want to do is to find a responsible and clean organisation, whether government or private, which can buy all the properties in bulk. We want to avoid any manipulation.・

SATURDAY PUNCH, January 28, 2006