Orji Kalu buys #billion worth Radio Nigeria building for N100m !
The six-storey building at 45, Martins Street, Lagos, owned by Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) has been sold out cheaply to Orji Uzor Kalu.
(FRCN) acquired the property after the country’s Independence in 1960 and structured it into a broadcasting station.
The first Frequency Modulated (FM) station in the country, Radio Nigeria 2 (RN2) began broadcasting from there.
. The building housing Radio Nigeria 2 (RN2), as the station was widely known, is today a burnt edifice enmeshed in sale and management controversy.
Invariably, the property was sold without the owner (FRCN) knowing about it.
It was sold over 10 years ago with no one coming forward to claim ownership – until recently.
The building was sold (in actual fact, leased for 99 years) in 2010 by the Presidential Implementation on the Sale of Government Property to Seamen Traders Nigeria Limited without the knowledge of FRCN.
Seamen Traders was issued a Certificate of Occupancy by the Federal government on May 17, 2010. A search at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) showed that Seamen Traders is owned by Orji Uzor Kalu, businessman, newspaper publisher and senator representing Abia North. The company, which was incorporated in February 1988, has Christiana Orji and Obinna Moore as the other directors.
Also curious is the fact that the property was sold for N100 million, whereas independent evaluation puts its worth at least one billion naira. What is more, there is no evidence that the pittance for which it was sold was ever paid into government coffers.
The Witness Newspaper
Home Investigation
Ripples as Orji Kalu’s firm buys billion naira-valued Radio Nigeria building for N100m
Babajide Omojuwa BY BABAJIDE OMOJUWA January 14, 2022
Ripples as Orji Kalu’s firm buys billion naira-valued Radio Nigeria building for N100m
Senator Kalu and the billion naira-valued Radio Nigeria building his firm bought for N100m
The six-storey building at 45, Martins Street, Lagos, flaunts a rich history. The Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) acquired the property after the country’s Independence in 1960 and structured it into a broadcasting station.
The first Frequency Modulated (FM) station in the country, Radio Nigeria 2 (RN2) began broadcasting from there, infusing entertainment into radio broadcast, a role it admiringly played for many years, spewing sonorous music, and producing exciting plays and short stories.
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That exemplary narration has, however, changed. The building housing Radio Nigeria 2 (RN2), as the station was widely known, is today a burnt edifice enmeshed in sale and management controversy. Invariably, the property was sold without the owner (FRCN) knowing about it. What is even more curious is that it was sold over 10 years ago with no one coming forward to claim ownership – until recently.
Checks also revealed that the building was sold (in actual fact, leased for 99 years) in 2010 by the Presidential Implementation on the Sale of Government Property to Seamen Traders Nigeria Limited without the knowledge of FRCN.
Further investigations revealed that Seamen Traders was issued a Certificate of Occupancy by the Federal government on May 17, 2010. A search at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) showed that Seamen Traders is owned by Orji Uzor Kalu, businessman, newspaper publisher and senator representing Abia North. The company, which was incorporated in February 1988, has Christiana Orji and Obinna Moore as the other directors.
Also curious is the fact that the property was sold for N100 million, whereas independent evaluation puts its worth at least one billion naira. What is more, there is no evidence that the pittance for which it was sold was ever paid into government.
On November 6, 2019, fire razed the imposing building, which Adebowale Stores Limited (ASL) had managed as lessee for some 19 years on behalf of the FRCN. That would be the second major fire damage to the building.
ASL had been a tenant in the building for about 20 years when fire first gutted the building on November 15, 1997, wreaking extensive damage. As the property remained unrepaired two years after the fire incident, the founder and chairman of ASL, Hamza Beyioku Adebowale, wrote to the FRCN in December 1999, indicating his company’s desire to repair the uninsured building and acquire a leasehold on it. The FRCN management agreed and, on May 29, 2000, both parties signed a five-year lease agreement.
A quantity surveyor described the sale sum as “a pittance” and estimated the cost of the property, even as far as back as 2010 and in its burnt shape, at “not less than N1 billion.” Another estimate put the worth of the building at N1.5bn.
There re indications that the sale might well be one of those a House of Representatives committee constituted by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, is probing over allegations of sleaze.