Reps Investigate Sale Of Urban Development Bank Of Nigeria

ABUJA, Nov 03, (THEWILL) - The House of Representatives today directed its Committee on Urban Development to carry out an investigative hearing on the sale of the Urban Development Bank of Nigeria (UDBN) to Messrs Investment and Credit Holdings LLC within two weeks. The directive to investigate the sale of UDBN was given following a motion sponsored by the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Mohammed Al-Makura and 22 of his colleagues at yesterday’s plenary. The motion was unanimously adopted without any dissenting voice. In his lead debate, Al-Makura expressed concern that the bank was hurriedly sold in 2007 to Messrs Investment and Credit Holdings LLC (KHC), a Limited liability company registered under the laws of the State of Delaware in the United States of America. He alleged that due process may not have been followed in the sale of the bank to the company hence the interest of staff and other stakeholders were not considered. According to Al-Makura, the original owners of the Urban Development Bank of Nigeria were the Federal Government with 20 percent share capital, state governments with 20 percent share capital, local governments with 40 percent, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) with 10 percent and the private sector with 10 percent share capital. He noted that the Federal Government had in 2003 constituted a Presidential Technical Committee to supervise the restructuring of the bank to ensure that it achieved its set objectives. The UDBN Plc was established under decree 51 of 1992 and incorporated as a Public Limited liability company in 1993. Also today, the House rejected a motion seeking to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) project recently commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan. The motion sponsored by the minority leader, Hon, Mohammed Ali Ndume was shut down when the Chairman of House Committee on Aviation, Honourable Bethel Amadi disagreed with the submissions of the motion that the TRACON project which has been commissioned by the president is still uncompleted and not functional in some airports.