Bloomberg is reporting that the son of Nigeria’s president-elect, Seyi Tinubu has been identified as the effective owner of an $11million London mansion that the Nigerian government was seeking to confiscate, as part of a corruption scandal involving indicted businessman, Kola Aluko.
The property was bought in 2017 by Aranda Overseas Corp that has Seyi Tinubu as the main shareholder. It was bought for $11million from Deutsche Bank after the property went into receivership from Kola Aluko. The mansion is a three-floor residence with eight car driveway, two garden, electric gates in the North London district of St. John’s Wood.
When the property was purchased, the Nigerian government was seeking to confiscate the asset and arrest Kola Aluko for defrauding the country of more than $1.5billion in oil trading scams related to Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former Minister of Petroleum Resources. The Diezani scandal is one of the biggest scandals ever to hit the Nigerian state, after the former oil minister was accused of authorizing corrupt contracts that allowed Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore to lift millions of barrels of crude oil without payments to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
It is believed that Aluko might have allowed the house to go into receivership after using it to collect loans from Deutsche Bank, effectively preventing the Nigerian government from seizing the property. In 2016, a Nigerian court ordered the seizure of more than 12 properties owned by Aluko in Nigeria and Abroad. The property in St. Johns Wood was among the listed properties affected by the court order.
Aluko is presently on the run from justice while his partner, Jide Omokore was recently cleared of charges by a Nigerian court. That judgment is currently on appeal by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
This is another scandal hovering around Bola Tinubu and his family. Tinubu is known to be fabulously wealthy with no known business enterprise. He has claimed to have made money from real estate and from working for Deloitte and Mobil Oil.
Tinubu has also been linked to narcotics trading after he forfeited $460,000 to the United States Government after his funds from proceeds of heroin trafficking were found in his accounts.
The current President, Muhammadu Buhari is reported to have visited Bola Tinubu at the same property in August 2021. Tinubu is noted as one of the main financial backers of the presidential ambition of Buhari in the 2015 presidential elections.
