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London Houses Worth £15 million Linked With Saraki Listed For Probe
Transparency International UK has listed two London houses suspected to be owned by Nigeria’s Senate President, Bukola Saraki for investigation under Britain’s new law, Unexplained Wealth Orders, which became effective from 31 January.
According to TI, Land Registry documents show that the houses at 7 and 8 Whittaker Street, Belgravia, London are owned by Landfield International Developments Limited and Renocon Property Development Limited.
Based on current market estimates by Zoopla, the properties are worth a combined total of around £15 million.
According to data released as part of the Panama Papers, these companies were controlled by Toyin Saraki, the wife of the President of the Nigerian Senate, Bukola Saraki as well as one of his personal aides. At the time of these revelations, none of these offshore holdings were reported in Saraki’s official asset declarations.
Previous public disclosures by Saraki have indicated he has high levels of unexplained wealth, Transparency International said.
In 2003, his asset declaration showed he had amassed tens of millions of pounds worth of assets during his time as director of Société Générale Bank and Special Assistant to the President on Budget.
The explanation he provided for these acquisitions was stated simply as “business”. Saraki is involved in an ongoing court case around allegations of false asset declarations from his tenure as Governor of Kwara state.
In a previous interview with The Guardian, Saraki said he had declared all his assets correctly and in accordance with Nigerian legislation.
Other assets listed for probe by Transparency International include a £18m property at Kenwood Gate, Hampstead, owned by the First Family of Azerbaijan, Flats 138A and 138B at 4 Whitehall Court, London, linked with Igor Shuvalov, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister. The flats are valued at £11.4million.
There are also a £1m property in Guildford linked with Ahmed Mahmoud Azwai, former Libyan Major General and two apartments at Park Lane, said to be owned by former Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.
Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) are a new investigative power designed to help law enforcement act on corrupt assets.
The Orders, Transparency said, are particularly useful where there is no realistic prospect of cooperation or conviction in the country of origin, but there are sufficient grounds for suspicion that an asset has been acquired with the proceeds of corruption.
After an application from an enforcement authority[1], a high court judge can give notice of a UWO only if she is satisfied that the respondent is likely to be the owner of suspicious wealth beyond his means, and if all of the following tests are met:
* The respondent is a Politically Exposed Person[2] (PEP) outside of the EEA; or there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the respondent is or has been involved in serious crime
*The respondent’s known income is insufficient to obtain the asset
*The value of the asset is greater than £50,000
The UWO requires the respondent to explain how he lawfully acquired his assets. If he fails to respond or gives an inadequate response then this extra information can be used in a separate civil recovery process (an existing measure under the Proceeds of Crime Act) if law enforcement has gathered sufficient evidence.
The U.K. estimates that around £90 billion ($127 billion, 102 billion euros) of illegal funds are laundered through Britain every year and this includes money stolen from the Nigerian treasury.
Now officials will use the new unexplained wealth orders (UWOs), which came into effect this week, to seize suspicious assets and hold them until they have been properly accounted for, Ben Wallace, Security and Economic Crime Minister told The Times newspaper on Saturday.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved major changes in the leadership of the Armed Forces, appointing new Service Chiefs in a decisive move aimed at strengthening national security architecture.
According to a statement on Friday by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, Chief Sunday Dare, the President named former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Olufemi Oluyede as the new Chief of Defence Staff, replacing General Christopher Musa.
Major-General W. Shaibu has been appointed Chief of Army Staff, Air Vice Marshal S.K. Aneke takes over as Chief of Air Staff, while Rear Admiral I. Abbas is the new Chief of Naval Staff.
The Chief of Defence Intelligence, Major-General E.A.P. Undiendeye, retains his position.
All appointments, the statement said, take immediate effect.
President Tinubu, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, expressed deep appreciation to the outgoing Chief of Defence Staff, General Musa, and other retired Service Chiefs for their “patriotic service and dedicated leadership” during their tenure.
He charged the newly appointed military heads to justify the confidence reposed in them by demonstrating “enhanced professionalism, vigilance, and comradeship” in the discharge of their duties.
The shake-up in the military hierarchy comes as part of ongoing efforts by the Tinubu administration to reposition the security sector, improve coordination among the services, and sustain momentum in the fight against terrorism, banditry, and other security challenges across the country.
A Federal High Court in Abuja has rejected a fresh application for bail filed by detained alleged terrorists negotiator, Tukur Mohammed Mamu.
Justice Mohammed Umar, in a ruling on Wednesday, noted the health complaint by Mamu and held that the detaining authority, the Department of State Services (DSS) should not release him but take him to an appropriate health facility where he would be adequately attended to.
Justice Umar noted that, by the history of the case so far, the prosecution has exhibited diligence in it handling of the case and exhibited diligence in prosecuting the case.
The judge said one of the reasons for granting bail is where the prosecution is not diligent, noting that since the prosecution in this case is diligent, the application for bail cannot be granted.
He subsequently ordered that the defence lawyer should choose the health facility comfortable to the defendant, to which he should be promptly taken.
He also asked the DSS to allow the defendant access to members of his family.
The ruling on Wednesday is the third time the court will reject his application for bail since his was arraigned on March 21, 2023 by the Federal Government on a 10-count charge bordering on terrorism financing, among others.
Mamu was arrested on September 7, 2022 by Egyptian security officials at the Cairo International Airport, on reasonable suspicion of financing Boko Haram terrorism activities.
He was alleged to have convinced the terrorists to discuss ransom payments with individual families of the hostages of the train attack instead of the Chief of Defense Staff Committee set up by the Federal Government for his personal financial gain.
He was said to have been nominated by the terrorists that attacked the Abuja-Kaduna bound train sometime in March 2022 which took scores of persons hostage.
Mamu was alleged to have collected ransoms on behalf of the Boko Haram terrorists from families of hostages, confirmed the amount and facilitated the delivery of same to the terrorists.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities has announced the suspension of its ongoing two-week warning strike.
The National President of ASUU, Prof. Chris Piwuna, made this known in an ongoing press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to Piwuna, the decision stemmed from the meeting of the National Executive Council meeting which was held overnight and ended by 4:00 am on Wednesday.
Piwuna noted that the union decided to embark on the strike due to the failure of the government to meet its demands on time.
“We’ve had useful engagements with representatives of the government to consider the response to the draft renegotiation of the 2009 agreements. However, we are definitely not where we were prior to the commencement of the strike.
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