Bankole : How we acquired NECOM House

Bankole : How we acquired NECOM House - Against the controversy surrounding the sale of Nitels 37 storey building, popularly called NECOM House on Marina, Lagos, Mr. Biola Bankole, one of the directors of West African Aluminum Products Plc , the new owner of the building has said that contrary to allegations of secrecy in the deal that the house was transparently and lawfully bought.


In an exclusively interview with Daily Sun on Wednesday in Lagos, Bankole said that the sale of NECOM House actually started in March 2007 and that it was number one on the list of about 800 to 850 properties advertised for sale by the liquidator. He narrated that WAPP Plc saw the advertisement in the papers and made enquiries on who the Liquidator was, and discovered that it was Otunba Olusola Adekanola .

“We met him and we not only found out that he was the authorized liquidator to dispose of all properties advertised in the Punch and his appointment was validated by a court order. We prepared and submitted our bids and the Liquidator rightly contacted us as the highest bidder, all this was between 2007 and 2008, one year apart. Payment was made in 2007 and we perfected all title documents in 2009.

“Thereafter, we took possession of the building, the parking space and the inventory of what was in the building. We wrote a letter to Nitel that has some equipment in the building to come and pay rents to us as the new owners. That was when all these problems started. If it was controversial, where were they when the property was advertised in 2007? Where were they when we paid for the property in 2008? Where were they when we perfected our title document in 2009? And we took possession of the property, all this while no one was talking about transparency or accused us of anything, only for someone to come after four years and accuse us of buying Nitel property in secrecy,” Bankole said.