Report reveals Seyi Tinubu paid $10.8m for UK property seized by FG
Like his father, Oluwaseyi, the son of Nigeria’s president-elect Bola Tinubu is in the eye of the storm following a report by Bloomberg, a reputable international media outlet, linking him to the acquisition of an “$11 million London mansion” that was forfeited to the Nigerian government.
The property, a “private three-floor residence in St. John’s Wood, equipped with an eight-car driveway, two gardens, electric gates and a gym” was confiscated from a businessman, Kola Aluko in June 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari administration after Aluko was indicted of a $1.6 billion fraud.
Aluko is an ally of Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former petroleum minister, who has been on the run after leaving office in 2015 over allegations of stealing public funds.
Bloomberg says Seyi purchased the property in 2017 – 16 months after the Court of Appeal in Abuja ordered the permanent confiscation of the property – through Aranda Overseas Corp., an offshore company he owns.
The acquisition, which was put at $10.8 million, was facilitated through Deutsche Bank, and a comment by Bloomberg reads: “At the time of the purchase, Nigeria’s government was seeking to arrest the house’s former owner, accusing him of going on the run while owing the country an oil-trading debt worth more than $1.5 billion.”
Though Tinubu, who won the presidential election and is expected to be sworn in on Mat 29, has been involved in countless controversies, the report says “There’s no suggestion that President-elect Bola Tinubu was personally involved in the acquisition of the UK property in 2017.”
Bloomberg’s report on Tinubu’s 37-year-old son in the early hours of Tuesday has become the trending topic among Nigerians on the micro-blogging platform Twitter, reigniting the debate about the family’s source of wealth.
