A company owned by the son of the Nigerian president-elect has bought an $11 million mansion in London that his predecessor government is seeking to seize as part of an investigation into one of the most recent cases. The biggest corruption scandal in the history of the West African nation, according to an unnamed British company documents.
There is no indication that President-elect Bola Tinubu was personally involved in the acquisition of British properties in 2017. Incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari visited him there in August 2021, almost four years later after the buying.
Tinubu, who will take office as head of state this month, has long been questioned about the origins of his family fortune during the recent election campaign, when he and his representatives were pressed by local and international media pressed on the issue.
He and his campaign say they made a fortune before entering politics by inheriting real estate, making good investments and working as an accountant at Deloitte LLP and as an executive at a Mobil Oil subsidiary Nigeria in the 1980s and early 1990s.
In an interview with the BBC before the election, Tinubu cited Warren Buffett as an example of getting rich. Corporate documents seen by Bloomberg for the first time show Tinubu’s 37-year-old son, Oluwaseyi, is the largest shareholder of Aranda Overseas Corp., an offshore company that paid £9 million ($10.8 million) to Deutsche Bank to purchase the asset.
In north London in late 2017. The three-story private residence in St. John’s Wood – a popular area for American bankers – is equipped with an eight-car driveway, two gardens, electric gates and a sports bathroom. Spokesmen for Bola Tinubu and Oluwaseyi Tinubu did not respond to emails, phone calls and messages seeking comment.
A UK lawyer listed as Aranda’s representative in the UK declined to comment citing confidentiality rules. At the time of the purchase, the Nigerian government was seeking to arrest the former owner of the house, accusing him of absconding while indebted to the country with more than $1.5 billion in oil debt.
The state is also trying to seize high-end real estate and other properties it suspects were acquired by businessman – Kolawole Aluko – with the proceeds of the crime.
Aluko denies all allegations of wrongdoing and says a court ruling earlier this year acquitted a former business partner who cleared his name.
The decision is being contested by Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency. Tinubu, 71, won the elections in February as the ruling candidate of the Radical People’s Congress and will succeed political ally Buhari on May 29.
He played a key role in uniting the opposition parties that brought the current head of state to power in 2015. While Buhari was elected on a promise to tackle rampant corruption, the country’s ranking in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index has fallen over the past eight years.
