By Uche Amunike
A report published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reading Project (OCCRP), has stated that twenty Properties in the United Kingdom has been linked to Nigeria’s President-elect, Bola Tinubu, all acquired during his time as the Lagos state governor.
According to the report, 17 of the properties were bought by Oladipo Eludoyin, who was Bola Tinubu’s associate and a director of Amanda Overseas Corp between 2004 and 2007.
Note that the OCCRP is a global network comprising of investigative journalists with staff on six continents whose main agenda is combating corruption and preventing crime.
Recently, a Bloomberg investigation gave reports about Bola Tinubu’s son, Seyi, being the major shareholder of an offshore company known as Aranda Overseas Corp., which he used to purchase property worth $10.8 million and which is under probe by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The OCCRP report stated: ‘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.“OCCRP has uncovered more than a dozen other properties with links to Tinubu. Tinubu’s spokesman did not respond to email and text messages seeking comment.’
‘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.’
It further stated: ‘His connection to Abeeb Holdings Limited has been revealed, thanks to the Register of Overseas Entities, a new measure designed by the UK to reveal the true owners of offshore firms that hold property in the country.’
The OCCRP report further confirmed that Eludoyin is also the beneficial owner of 17 UK properties through three offshore companies registered in the British Virgin Islands and that the duo of Tinubu’s former aide and successor, Babatunde Fashola and the incumbent governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had a hand in the control of Aranda Overseas Corp. internal affairs.
The report elaborates: ‘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. 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.’
It further stated: ‘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. 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.
The OCCRP stated that it was not clear when Seyi Tinubu became the beneficial owner because when Aranda Overseas Corporation was incorporated in November 1999 in the tax haven British Virgin Islands he was only 14 and had just gotten admitted for his secondary school education into the Milton Abbey School, while his father, Bola Tinubu had only been governor of Lagos for six months.
