Daily Trust

N12.9bn debt: AMCON clears air on Victory Park Estate

- From Abdullatee­f Aliyu, Lagos Nigerian Institute of Building to install Awobodu as president ICPC, NIQS partner to probe NASS constituen­cy projects

The Assets Management Corporatio­n of Nigeria (AMCOM) has said that it did not flout any law in taking over several multi-billion properties in Victory Park Estate in Lekki, Lagos, following a N12.9 billion judgment debt it won at the Court of Appeal.

The corporatio­n also said it was applying human face in the implementa­tion of the judgement by trying to reach amicable resolution with property owners affected by the judgement.

Daily Trust reports that AMCON had on

All is set for the investitur­e of Mr. Kunle Awobodu as the 20th President of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB).

The institute had at its 49th Builders’ Conference/Annual General Meeting in August, 2019, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, elected Mr. Awobodu as its 20th president.

NIOB General Secretary, Mr. Christophe­r Belonwu,

The Independen­t Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) have entered into a partnershi­p to evaluate executed constituen­cy projects by members of the National Assembly.

Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari said there was little to show for over N1tn budgeted for constituen­cy projects of National Assembly members in the last 10 years.

The president, who indicted the legislator­s while speaking at a national summit on: “Diminishin­g Corruption in the Public Service”, in Abuja, disclosed that a report had confirmed government’s fear that constituen­cy projects did not get to the ordinary people as initially envisaged.

June, 2019, taken over the properties which included assets of Knight Rook Limited situated within Victory Park Estate.

AMCON’s move followed the dismissal of an appeal filed against an October 3, 2017 judgement of a Federal High Court in a suit marked FHC/L/CS/744/17 Asset Management Corporatio­n of Nigeria V. Knight Rook Limited & Ors.

Addressing a press conference at the weekend, Partner, Matrix-Solicitors LLP, Mr. Jide Olasite, counsel to AMCON, said the takeover of the properties in the estate said arrangemen­ts had been concluded for the investitur­e ceremony to hold at 06:00pm on Thursday, November 28, 2019, at the Internatio­nal Conference Centre, Abuja.

Mr. Belonwu said NIOB was the only training and profession­al body for builders in Nigeria as recognised by the regulatory body, the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON), which was

The partnershi­p between NIQS and ICPC is to enable the profession­al costing and valuation of the executed projects to ensure that government gets value for money spent.

Speaking to reporters in Lagos, the immediate past President of NIQS, Obafemi Onashile, said, “A politician is saying an overhead tank cost N200m. Accountant­s was in line with the order of the Court of Appeal which awarded it a N12.9bn judgement.

Mr. Olasite stressed that going by the N12.9bn judgement it obtained from the Federal High Court in October, 2017, as affirmed by the Court of Appeal on June 3, 2019, AMCON owned the properties in Victory Park Estate 100 per cent.

He said, “As of today that property belongs to the Federal Government of Nigeria because the court has said so. Those facts are never going to change. What can change it is the people engaging with AMCON to resolve the issue.” establishe­d by Decree 45 of 1989, now ACT CAP B13 FLN 2004.

He further said, “The investitur­e event will, therefore, be a forum for stakeholde­rs in the building environmen­t to reaffirm their commitment to the promotion of standard building constructi­on that will ensure safety in our environmen­t and save the government from the huge resources being expended on building collapse rescue operations.” can agree and process, but quantity surveyors have a cost database to benchmark any constructi­on.

“We are doing this as an independen­t assessor, virtually probono. We have gone into this agreement to work as profession­als; not as contractor­s.”

He said the partnershi­p was based on the request of the ICPC and the institute.

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