The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, has said that the 61 houses and 45 plots of lands recently seized by officials of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, does not belong to the organisation.

Chairman of the ICPC, Ekpo Nta, told the Senate last week that his commission had seized the properties spread across the Federal Capital Territory and Nasarawa, from a top NSCDC official.

According to a statement signed by its public relations officer, Emmanuel Okeh, on behalf of the NSCDC Commandant-General, Ade Abolurin, the para-military agency stressed that “the property seized by the ICPC do not belong to NSCDC; rather, they belong to some indicted officers who are currently under investigations.”

It said the seized property were purportedly acquired with proceeds of the illegal land sales by the scammers.

Abolurin noted that the NSCDC is not involved in sales of land and did not at any time delegate persons, organisations or agents to do so on its behalf, adding that it neither has land for sale, or any housing estate in its name.

He said the mandate of the corps as a para-military agency was to protect and safeguard the critical infrastructure of government and the country’s national assets.

It listed some of the assets as petroleum pipelines, power transmission equipment and telecommunication installations, among others.

The commandants said further: “The corps, therefore, does not have any business with the purported land sales and the officers who are culpable must be sanctioned according to the law.