At Least 20 Properties in the UK Linked to Nigeria’s President-elect and His Associates -Report

At Least 20 Properties in the UK Linked to Nigeria’s President-elect and His Associates -Report

  

According to an investigation published on Friday by the
Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Bola Tinubu, the
president-elect, has again been linked to 20 properties his associates bought in
the United Kingdom (UK) when he was serving as Lagos governor.

Read full Report:

 Nigeria's president-elect, Bola Tinubu, whose victory in
February is being challenged in court, has been keeping part of his wealth in
the United Kingdom, where he and his close associates own at least 20
properties that were mostly acquired when Tinubu was the governor of Lagos
State.

 

Following the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu is
scheduled to succeed Muhammadu Buhari as president on 29 May 2023. His
opponents claim the elections have been fixed.

 

The 71-year-old is widely seen as Nigeria's political
kingmaker for his role in the elections of several governors in the country's
southwest region, as well as the election of Buhari, who defeated the incumbent
in 2015.

 

The governors he picked tended to be former directors of
companies owned by Tinubu or his son.

 

Bloomberg first reported on Tuesday that Tinubu's son,
Oluwaseyi, is the main shareholder of Aranda Overseas Corporation, an offshore
company that bought a controversial US$10.8 million U.K. property in 2017.

 

At the time it was bought, Nigeria was trying to confiscate
the London house that belonged to a Nigerian oil dealer who was facing
corruption charges at home and in the United States, according to OCCRP
Nigerian partner Premium Times.

 

However, OCCRP has uncovered more than a dozen other
properties with links  to Tinubu, mostly
acquired while he served as Lagos State's governor from May 1999 to May 2007.
Tinubu’s spokesman did not respond to email and text messages seeking comment.

 

“If there are reasonable grounds to suspect these assets
were bought with criminal funds then they should be investigated,” said Steve
Goodrich, head of research and investigations at Transparency International
U.K. “Owning a home via an offshore company has seldom made much sense except
for securing secrecy,” he added.

 

Tinubu’s history is not entirely clean. He was forced to
forfeit $460,000 to the U.S. government in 1993 as proceeds of narcotics
trafficking, according to the ruling of a U.S. District Court in Illinois.

 

However, about a year later, Abeeb Holdings Limited, an
offshore company registered in Gibraltar with Tinubu as the beneficial owner,
bought Flat 9 at 96-100 New Cavendish Street in London.

 

His connection to Abeeb Holdings Limited has been revealed,
thanks to the Register of Overseas Entities, a new measure designed by the U.K.
to reveal the true owners of offshore firms that hold property in the country.

 

In 2011, his son's Aranda Overseas Corporation bought Flat
10A in the same building. The lease agreement was signed by Tinubu's associate,
Oladipo Eludoyin, a director of Aranda Overseas Corporation.

 

Eludoyin is also the founding director of Aranda Resources
Limited, a Nigerian registered company whose shares are owned by Aranda
Overseas Corporation.

 

OCCRP further found that Eludoyin is the beneficial owner of
17 U.K. properties through three offshore companies registered in the British
Virgin Islands.

 

Eludoyin's properties were purchased between 2004 and 2007
when Tinubu was governor of Lagos State. He did not respond to a request for
comment.

 

Tinubu was succeeded by Babatunde Fashola, who previously
served as his chief of staff. Fashola also had a hand in Aranda Resources
Limited. He signed and presented the allotment of shares of Aranda Resources Limited
to Nigeria's corporate registry in December 2001. Fashola’s spokesperson did
not respond to requests for comment.

 

Following his term as governor, Tinubu remained an
influential politician. Local media reported that he picked Babajide Sanwo-Olu
and made him governor of Lagos State in 2019, despite entreaties from his party
to allow Sanwo-Olu's predecessor to continue for a second term.

 

Sanwo-Olu was a director in Aranda Resources Limited until
26 days before his first day in office as governor in May 2019. His
spokesperson also did not respond to requests for comment.

 

Another director of Aranda Resources Limited and Aranda
Overseas Corporation, Adegboyega Oyetola, was elected governor of the Nigerian
southwestern state of Osun in 2018, and Tinubu was widely credited for his
electoral success.

 

It is not clear when he became the beneficial owner, but
when Aranda Overseas Corporation was incorporated in November 1999 in the tax
haven British Virgin Islands, the younger Tinubu was 14 and had just been admitted
into Milton Abbey School in England for his secondary school education while
his father had just spent nearly six months as the governor of Lagos State.culled: occrp

Source: At Least 20 Properties in the UK Linked to Nigeria’s President-elect and His Associates -Report

 - NigerianEye
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