The Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee has tackled the protesting bidders alleging irregularities within the automobile auctioning lately held in numerous places around the nation.
This building is coming at the heels of the belief of the workout, which lasted between Monday, January 20 and Monday, January 27, 2025.
Upon conclusion, bidders shared screenshots on diverse social media appearing outrageous quantities as bids, departure room for plenty of of them to again out on probably the most offer.
The bidding ranged from N1 billion to N330 billion for mid-range and averagely refined Lexus jeeps and SUVs.
Reacting, one person who known as Daniel Momoh on X.com shared his frustrations, pronouncing, “Pricey @officialEFCC, this is a pity that you just and your auctioneers cheated us out of a sound procedure we occupied in the previous day the place I received 4 other cars, specifically: Toyota Venza – 2,670,000; Lexus ES350 – 2,000,000; Lexus IS250 – 2,520,000 and Toyota – Camry – 1,500,000.
“I woke up this morning to see that my name has been replaced with another name, which blocked me from assessing the website via the account I opened before the bidding.”
Any other person, who known as #Kennylekel, wrote, “EFCC, the website online for the professional public sale for the vehicles, abruptly introduced out error 502 about 43 mins to the tip of the public sale!! We are hoping it isn’t intentional to make a choice your most popular bidders. I’ve been bidding since 11 am. Kindly reply.
One CIA on X.com additionally mentioned, “This is just to fulfil all righteousness and to do some damage control. The cars listed here have been sold to their staff and cronies for very small sums. If you eventually buy it over from them, you’ll also be suspected and arrested for being a fraudster.”
“The auction you conducted yesterday was a sham! In a bid to rig the system, the incompetent auctioneers you engaged allowed a bid of N350,000,000,000 for a Lexus RX 350 Jeep. It’s not a glitch. It’s a deliberate attempt to gate-keep others from bidding,” a person who identifies as Baron El’Sama opined.
Additionally, a person on X.com mentioned, “I’ve just seen magic happen right before my eyes. A C300 with lot number ADC/BEN/AU/98 that I bid on and won at N5,570,001 just vanished from the auction site. EFCC, una well done.”
In his statement, a person on Fb who identifies as Aromeh Joshua mentioned, “EFCC auction: Checked two of the Lagos Auctioneers, and their website is (Resource Limit is Reached) temporarily unavailable. A few were hurriedly put together.”
Any other person who wrote with title, Hafiz Bawa, on X.com wrote, “Dear @officialEFCC, I am reporting alleged fraudulent activity earlier today during the motor vehicle auction that raises serious concerns about fairness and integrity. It appears that the highest bidder and a “short bidder” colluded to control the public sale.
“The highest bidder placed excessively high bids to inflate the price, knowing they would not pay. Under the auction terms, this allowed the short bidder, who had the second-highest bid, to win at an inflated price. This tactic disadvantaged legitimate bidders and exploited the rules, undermining the auction’s fairness. I urge an immediate investigation into this matter.”
“I have seen seven people come out here to accuse the @officialEFCC of committing fraud through this auction. I have yet to see anyone come out to say they actually got the car they bid for. And yet, the institution isn’t addressing the crime that has been carried out. We need to do better,” one person who identifies as Tchalla Kingsman famous.
“Those that are alleging non-transparency are just being economical with the truth. The auction process was electronic and open bidding. There is no way of any extraneous influence or intervention. The allgation is unfounded, it can neither be supported by fact nor logic. Everybody that participated gave a remark that they were able to get; some even said they were outbid.”
Reacting to the allegations in a phone dialog, EFCC’s spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, mentioned the company has incorrect hand within the procedure for the reason that public sale process was once passed over to government-licenced auctioneers.
He maintained that some society will have bid outrageous cash to frustrate the method, stressing that it may well be planned sabotage.
“It is betweeen the auctioneers and the bidding public, it has nothing to do with us. We did not interfere in any of the processes at all,” he famous.
He additional challenged the crowd to deliver evidence of compromise, including that now not even his similar ones may get his affect to retain a car within the auctioning procedure.
Recall that extreme presen Monday, the fee indexed over 850 vehicles forfeited to the Federal Executive for public sale throughout other places within the nation. (https://punchng.com/efcc-to-auction-850-recovered-vehicles/)
The vehicles, starting from luxurious cars to mid-range Toyota Camry, had been recovered by means of the EFCC during investigations into diverse monetary crimes, together with corruption, cash laundering, and cybercrime.
EFCC defined that the public sale was once in series with the EFCC (Established order) Office, 2004, Crowd Procurement Office, 2007 and the Proceeds of Crime (Medication & Control) Office, 2022.
The public sale, in line with the observation, is scheduled to be held in diverse places around the nation, together with Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Kano, and will probably be achieved by means of the EFCC in collaboration with appointed auctioneers.
In step with the observation, the fee has referred to as on individuals of the crowd to take part within the public sale, promising that the method will probably be clear and honest.