*Lagos properties’ buyer to pay FG extra N32m*

By Stephen Angbulu, PUNCH

15th September 2022

The Federal Government, on Wednesday, said the buyer of two real estate properties confiscated for drug-related crimes in 2001 would now pay the Lagos State Government the full valuation price of the assets.

This amounts to N18m and N20m to be paid for the Lagos-based properties earlier purchased for N5m and N2m respectively.

Explaining the development to State House Correspondents after Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said the new directive followed a memo which revealed that the government was underpaid in the 21-year transaction.

The properties, a four-bedroom bungalow on Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja, Lagos, and a five-bedroom duplex on Amadasun Street, Ikoyi GRA, Lagos, were seized by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in the course of a narcotics prosecution.

He said the government had mandated the buyer to pay N18m for the bungalow and N21m for the five-bedroom duplex being the cost at which they were valued in 2001.

However, Fashola kept mute on the identity of the buyer and the narcotic dealer who the NDLEA confiscated the properties from.

“They were properties sold as a result of a prosecution for narcotics by NDLEA. So, they were proceeds of drug crimes, but the valuation process followed the NDLEA Act instead of the Financial Regulations Act.