House to conduct public hearing on plan to sell residence of Nigeria’s Rep to UN

House to conduct public hearing on plan to sell residence of Nigeria’s Rep to UN
The House of Representatives on Tuesday resolved to conduct public hearing on the alleged plan to sell the official residence of Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York, United States of America.
The committee is to establish the veracity of the allegation and report back to the House within one month.
It also mandated the committee to ensure that adequate resources are allocated in the 2014 budget to undertake repairs of the property so that the Permanent Representative could move into the residence.
It further directed the committee to urge the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to stop every lease or renting agreements of any apartments whatsoever for the permanent representative at the expiration of such current leases or renting agreements.
It also urged the Ministry to ensure that after the repairs, the country’s permanent representatives reside in the residence “since that is the purpose for which it was acquired in the first place”.
The resolutions were sequel to a motion by Hon. Yakubu Dogara (PDP-Bauchi) and 18 others, which was adopted without debate when it was put to vote by the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha.
The motion was entitled: “Urgent Need to Forestall the Alleged Plan to Sell the official Residence of Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nation.”
Moving the motion, Dogara noted that the Federal Government embarked on a sound policy to acquire a befitting structure to serve as the official residence of the country’s permanent representative to the UN in 1961.
He said that the residence was acquired in order to make a “dignified presence” at the UN in New York.
Dogara further said that the government of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was able to secure a historic edifice, which was built in the middle of the 19th Century.
He said that the said property sits on an area of over 16.6 acres of land, which is located in Terry town in Westchester County of New York.
Dogara said that due to a period of “deliberate neglect”, the property needs some repairs put at about N350 million.
He added: “The prospective buyer is already said to be waiting for the signal to begin the process of buying and paying for the property.”
Dogara expressed concern that this seems to be the pattern with “Nigerian national landed assets all over the world in which proceeds, after sales, never come into the coffers of the government”.
He said: “If this trend is not stopped, we may one day find out that even our embassies and other diplomatic missions have been sold and the proceeds frittered away under one flimsy excuse or the other.”
The legislator called on his colleagues to support the motion because “Nigeria needs a respectable residential address for her permanent representative”.