In August, President Muhammadu Buhari had paid a goodwill visit to ally former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu at his London Villa, United Kingdom, the mansion was linked to one of the biggest corruption scandals in the country.
According to Premium Times, the mansion where Tinubu hosted Buhari is not only embroiled in a multi-billion fraud scandal, the Buhari government had actually secured a freezing order on the property from a Federal High Court before the previous owner, who is now an international fugitive, sold it at a huge discount to an offshore company owned by the Governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola, a relative of Tinubu.
The property was linked to one of the biggest corruption scandals in the country since Buhari became president in 2015.
Tinubu’s mansion, which is situated at 32 Grove End Road, in the wealthy Westminster neighbourhood of London, has become a sort of mecca to associates of Mr Tinubu, and politicians of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), after the National leader of the party started staying there for what appears to be recuperation.
Apart from Mr Buhari, other politicians who have visited Tinubu at the mansion of expanse 6,975 sq ft are the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; a former governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun; Amosun’s successor, Dapo Abiodun; the governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi; the governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu; members of the Lagos State House of Assembly; the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; a contingent from Kano State led by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje; top fuji musician; Wasiu Ayinde, among other dignitaries.
Newsflash Nigeria reports that this revelation is part of reports released by the ‘Pandora Papers’, created by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) a nonprofit newsroom and network of journalists centred in Washington, D.C., which exposes a global entanglement of political power and secretive offshore finances and dealings.
The investigation which involved over 600 journalists and over 100 media organisations have already exposed the financial dealings in former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta, the image-maker of Russian President Vladimir Putin and many others
The Pandora Papers investigation uncovered financial secrets, including those of politicians, former and serving public officials, including Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, former PDP Vice-presidential candidate, Peter Obi, APC chieftain, Senator Stella Oduah, among others.
The leaked records came from 14 offshore services firms from around the world who help clients set up shell companies and design opaque structures to conceal their financial dealings
The property which Tinubu has now taken as his abode is situated at 32 Grove End Road, in the wealthy Westminster neighbourhood of London.
The Pandora Papers report read:
The 32 Grove End Road villa exudes stunning opulence. According to an advert brochure of the property released by popular United Kingdom real estate company, Savills, the estate is made up of two buildings – a five-bedroom property with a formal reception, a study, a master bedroom with an en suite dressing room, bathroom and a cinema suite with a balcony overlooking the rear garden. Two of the other four bedrooms in the property are en suite.
The second building on the estate is a self-contained two-bedroom flat which is built above the property’s double length garage. The property comes with a gym, two guest cloakrooms, a carriage driveway that can park up to eight cars, and front and rear gardens, and an electric gate.
Bought from a fugitive at an £8 million discount
Documents obtained from the UK property register revealed that in July 2013, the property with title number 340992, was bought for £11.95 million by Zavlil Holdings Ltd, a shell company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, a notorious tax haven.
Further documents obtained by Premium Times revealed that Zavlil Holdings Limited is owned by Kolawole Aluko, an international fugitive wanted by law enforcement agencies in Nigeria and the United States for money laundering.
Kola Aluko and his associate, Jide Omokore, were indicted in the U.S. and Nigeria for multi-million-dollar fraud and money laundering violations allegedly in collusion with a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
In 2016, the Federal Government of Nigeria filed a Mareva injunction at a Federal High Court in Lagos seeking to confiscate a list of properties belonging to Messrs Aluko and Omokore valued at $1.8 billion.
In the suit against Omokore and Aluko, alongside their companies, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited and Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited, the Nigerian government asked the court to grant it seven orders to prevent the accused from disposing of the assets. The government alleged they were acquired through fraudulent means.
The third prayer the government made to the court was to grant it an order restraining the accused “from giving any instruction, demanding, accepting, receiving payments and/or transacting, transferring, mortgaging or howsoever dealing in any manner with assets of the Defendants in both houses and land in Abuja and Lagos and others located outside Nigeria.”
The government then listed 17 properties in Abuja, Lagos, the U.S., Canada, Dubai, Switzerland, and the UK.
Among the listed properties was “Grove End Road, London”.
The court granted the government all its prayers.
In October 2017, an attempt by the defendants to dismiss the Mareva injunction granted on the properties was subsequently dismissed by Oluremi Oguntoyinbo, the trial judge.
But just around the time (on October 18, 2017), the court dismissed the defendant’s attempt to dismiss the injunction, documents obtained from the U.K. property register revealed that Mr Aluko sold the house for £9 million to Aranda Overseas Corporation, an offshore company incorporated in the British Virgins Island by two of Tinubu’s most trusted surrogates – Adegboyega Oyetola, formerly chair of Paragon Group of Companies and incumbent governor of Osun State and Elusanmi Eludoyin, Oyetola’s successor at Paragon.
The huge discount at which the property was sold is curious and raised questions of whether Mr Aluko desperately needed to sell the property even while a court of law had placed a freeze order on it.
The United Kingdom, especially the greater London area, is noted for the rapid increase in the value of properties.
According to the calculation of the likely value, the property should be worth approximately 17 million pounds. Thus, Mr Aluko sold the property at a discount of £8,000,000.
How we used public photos to confirm the Identity of the London villa
In the application filed by the Nigerian government, the house number of the property on Grove End Road was omitted.
However, Premium Times’ extensive investigation in Nigeria and the U.K., including a detailed analysis of photographs of visits to Mr Tinubu, has shown that the APC leader is staying at the same property the Nigerian government wants to be forfeited.
We were also able to determine that it was at the same property that Mr Tinubu welcomed Mr Buhari on August 12 as well as other politicians who visited him.
Our reporters carefully analysed some of the photos of these visits. Sources close to Mr Tinubu also confirmed that he stays and welcomes guests, including Mr Buhari, at the property.
Two photos of the visit of Mr Abiodun, the governor of Ogun State, were particularly helpful in making the initial connections.
We compared the photos with those of the estate published in an advertisement brochure for the property by the real estate firm Savills, and they matched with features seen in some of the photos shared by those who visited the political kingmaker and presidential hopeful.
In one of the photos, Mr Abiodun, wearing a blue jacket and brown pants, stood beside Mr Tinubu, who spotted a white robe just behind. Double door entrance in front of a staircase. They smiled as they touched each other with their elbows in what seems like a playful coronavirus “shake”.
The floor tiles of the doorway and the intricate mental work of the railings of the staircase are identical to one of the photos in the advertisement brochure of 32 grove End Road published by Savills.
In another photo, Messrs. Abiodun and Tinubu were captured having what seemed like a hearty laugh. A comparison of the concrete rectangular concrete slabs around the garden with those of the garden in the Savills brochure showed that they are identical.
We also compared the photos taken during Mr Buhari’s visit and those taken during the visit of the Kano State governor and his entourage and they clearly showed that Mr Tinubu met with them at 32 Grove End Road.
Beyond analysing photographs of the interior and exterior of the building, we also sent representatives to visit the location and determine that the APC leader stays there.
We put our findings to Tunde Rahman, the spokesperson for Mr Tinubu. He promised to get back within 24 hours when we reached him on the telephone. Four days after, we are yet to hear from him.
When reached for comments, Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant on media to Mr Buhari, asked that questions be emailed to him. We did as he instructed. However, we did not hear from him subsequently.
How Oyetola broke the law
In November 1999, eighteen years before it was used as a vehicle to purchase the London property, Mr Oyetola and his billionaire partner, Mr Eludoyin, sought the service of a Bristol, UK-based international company registration agent, Jordans Limited, to help them set up a company.
They wanted a kind of setup that would guarantee some secrecy and on November 11 of that year, the company was registered.
Leaked confidential records revealed that Messrs Eludoyin and Oyetola became the shareholders and directors of Aranda and we did not see any record that the latter resigned from the management of the company even as he served as chief of staff to his predecessor, Rauf Aregbesola, thereby breaking Nigeria’s law.
In Nigeria, a person is statutorily obligated to withdraw from engaging in or directing a private business, except if it is farming, upon becoming a public officer, Section Six (6) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act stipulates.
Apart from Aranda, Mr Oyetola has another footprint in the offshore shadow economy. He and Mr Eludoyin, in 2003, incorporated another shelf company in the British Virgin Islands, Global Investments Offshore Limited.
He ran the company as a director almost throughout his term as Mr Aregbesola’s Chief of Staff. However in June 2018, months before he became governor, he withdrew from the company and made his children – Rukayat Oyetola, Hafiz Oyetola, and Rasheedat Oyetola directors.
He also transferred his shares in Global Investments Offshore Limited to Mr Eludoyin and his son Hafiz in June 2018. A register of directors we saw shows that all the formalities for the transfers were concluded and signed on June 1, 2018.
By remaining a director of Global Offshore for the entire period he was Chief of Staff to Mr Aregbesola, Mr Oyetola violated Nigeria’s code of conduct law and could be arraigned before the Code of Conduct Tribunal if authorities decide to prosecute him for the infraction.
It however remains unclear why Mr Oyetola would rush to buy a property his country was pushing to confiscate due to well-known corruption allegations against its then owner.
Also unclear is why Mr Tinubu, who apparently wants to become Nigeria`s president, would agree to stay at the controversial property.
As for Mr Buhari, it is yet unknown why he would visit Mr Tinubu at a property suspected to have been originally bought by Mr Aluko from the proceeds of alleged theft of Nigeria’s oil money.
Mr Oyetola ignored multiple requests for him to comment on this story. His spokespersons declined to revert days after they promised to do so.
As indicated earlier, the spokespersons for Messrs Buhari and Tinubu also declined to comment for this report despite multiple requests by our reporters.
Source: Premium Times
