Seyi Tinubu, son of President-elect Bola Tinubu, has allegedly been linked to the purchase of a “fraud-tainted” $10.8 million property in London, the United Kingdom.
According to a Bloomberg investigation, he was said to have acquired the property in 2017 through Aranda Overseas Corporation— an offshore company where documents revealed that Seyi is the main shareholder.
The report indicates that there is no suggestion that the President-elect, Tinubu “was personally involved” in the acquisition of the London property. However, a report by Premium Times in 2021, said President-elect resided in the property during a medical trip to London.
In 2016, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), secured an order to seize the property, among others, from Kola Aluko, an ally of Diezani Alison-Madueke, former minister of petroleum, Bloomberg said in the report.
“Early in Buhari’s first term, his administration initiated legal cases against Diezani Alison-Madueke, who served as oil minister for five years until 2015, and two businessmen — Aluko and Olajide Omokore — who won lucrative contracts during her tenure,” the report reads in part.
“The US government said in a 2017 forfeiture lawsuit filed in Texas that the pair bribed the minister by funding her “lavish” lifestyle and failed to pay the state energy company for most of the crude they received.
“In June 2016, a federal judge in the capital, Abuja, granted a request by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to seize more than a dozen properties that Aluko had acquired in Nigeria and abroad, including the one in St. John’s Wood. That forfeiture order was still in force when Tinubu’s son bought the house out of receivership 16 months later.”
Bloomberg said President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesperson and Alison-Madueke’s lawyer declined to comment on the investigation.
The spokespersons for Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and the EFCC were also said to have failed to comment on the report.
Recall in 2021, the then-governor of Osun State, Adegboyega Oyetola was accused of being a director in the company.
However, Ismail Omipidan, chief press secretary to the governor said Mr Oyetola resigned his directorship of Aranda Overseas Corporation in 2011 when he took up political appointment. He also surrendered his shareholding in the same company.
