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Assets valued at millions of naira are rotting away at various locations across the country after the planned auction of the items by the Ministry of Water Resources failed to hold.
The items, including unserviceable earth-moving machines and other heavy-duty industrial equipment, had been abandoned at various sites by the ministry for several years, where they have been overtaken by weeds.
Many of the machinery are located at the Gurara Dam in Niger State, as well as Upper and Lower Benue in Doma, and across other sites.
DAILY POST reports that the ministry had in a publication dated August 20, 2025, signed by Moses Jo-Madugu, Chairman of the Board of Scraps and Unserviceable Items Committee, announced plans to auction the items.
However, it was gathered that the planned auction was stalled due to alleged conflict of interest among senior ministry officials.
Speaking on the development, President of the Nigeria Association of Auctioneers, Musa Kurra, suggested that the ministry is not sincere about the planned auction.
Kurra said the ministry appeared to be playing games, adding that the officials have refused to follow the due process.
‘’Since August 20, 2025 when the ministry published an advertorial about the planned auction of the heavy-duty machinery and other scraps and unserviceable assets, the officials have kept mum. They refused to release further information about the auction.
“First, the advert is defective and vague; it was supposed to invite auctioneers to submit applications for appointment to sell on their behalf, but this was not done. Also, there were supposed to be second and follow-up adverts for the announcement of dates and location of sales to the public, but this was also not done. Everything is done in secrecy.
“Worse still, they are not involving auctioneers who, by law, are legally mandated to supervise the auction processes. What we learnt is that they have been taking some contractors to the sites where the assets have been left abandoned for several years to rot away. This equipment was bought at millions of naira, but, unfortunately, they were abandoned under the sun and rain and allowed to go bad,” Kurra said.
He accused the ministry’s officials of frustrating the Federal Government’s move to recover money from the abandoned assets.
Kurra further insisted that the auctioneers must be carried along in the disposal of the items, as stipulated by law.
“Now that the government can recover some money from these assets, the ministry has been playing hide-and-seek and refusing to provide clear information on the auction exercise.
“This is unacceptable to the Nigeria Association of Auctioneers. We demand that the right thing be done. The ministry of Water Resources must carry us along, provide the necessary guidelines and ensure that the process leading to the auction and the auction itself are transparent and credible. Our objective is for the government to get value from the auction,” he stressed.
Efforts to get the comments of relevant officials of the ministry concerning the stalled auction were not successful on Tuesday.
Multi-million naira assets rot away as Ministry of Water Resources fails to hold auction
