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Offshore assets belong to Nigerian Senate president, not wife |
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The head of the Nigeria Senate is accused of failing to declare his property and operating foreign accounts while in public office, write Emmanuel Mayah and Joshua Olufemi. |
The head of the Nigeria Senate is accused of failing to declare his property and operating foreign accounts while in public office, write Emmanuel Mayah and Joshua Olufemi. |
Toyin Ojora-Saraki, the wife of the president of the Nigerian Senate, is a business front for her husband, Bukola Saraki.
According to documents retrieved from the Mossack Fonseca database, the assets in her name in tax havens are held in trust for Saraki, Nigeria’s third most powerful official.
Initial analysis of the leaks suggested that Saraki failed to disclose four assets found to be in his wife’s name offshore, in violation of Nigeria’s code of conduct law. In his response to the leaks, Saraki said the assets belonged to the estate of his wife’s family, and that the law did not mandate him to declare such a category of assets. But documents suggest that the assets are his.
One of the companies in Ojora-Saraki’s name is Sandon Development, a vehicle used to buy a property at 8 Whittaker Street, Belgravia in London, in 2012. Another shareholder listed for that company is Babatunde Morakinyo, a long-term personal aide and friend of Saraki’s.
But fresh evidence suggests that Ojora-Saraki and Morakinyo were fronts, nominee directors holding assets in trust, for the Nigerian Senate president.
In April 2012, while still Kwara governor, Saraki described himself as the landlord of 8 Whittaker Street and 70 Bourne Street, London. He executed a deed granting his tenants licence to make alterations to the properties.
Part three of the deed reads: “This license is supplemental. The reversion immediately expectant on the determination of the lease is now vested in the landlord.
The unexpired residue of the No 70 (Bourne Street) lease is still vested in Dr Saraki and the unexpired residue of the No 8 (Whittaker Street) lease is now vested in the companies.”
The deed was signed by Saraki on behalf of himself, Sandon Development and Renocon Property Development.
It was from Renocon that Ojora-Saraki, posing as the owner of Sandon, purportedly bought 8 Whittaker Street in July 2011.
Unless Saraki was misrepresenting himself, this indicates that both companies belong to him, and that he used one company he owned to buy a property from another of his companies.
Ojora-Saraki would then have fronted for him in the purported transaction. It is not clear why the Senate president acted this way.
Girol Properties was registered in the British Virgin Islands on 25 August 2004, a year after Saraki became governor of Nigeria’s northern-central state of Kwara.
Company documents show that Ojora-Saraki owns 25,000 shares and was appointed the only director of the company. In a letter to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists through her lawyers, Ojora-Saraki denied ever owning any shares in Girol Properties.
The leaks, however, link Ojora-Saraki to the firm. A handwritten document, in particular, suggests that she was known by Mossack Fonseca as a nominee director, though not as the beneficial owner of the company.
Landfield International Developments, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands on 8 April 2014 had Ojora-Saraki listed as its sole shareholder.
But it is apparent that she was a front, because Saraki has since discreetly taken over the company using Longmeadow Holdings, another shell company registered in Jersey.
To effect the takeover, a board meeting of Landfield was purportedly held on 28 January 2015, where it was agreed that the company be sold to Saraki for more than £3 million.
That same day, Ojora-Saraki wrote to Mossack Fonseca informing the law firm that she was transferring the beneficial ownership of Landfield to Saraki and his company.
“Dear Sirs
Landfield International Developments Limited (the “Company”)
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We refer to the Company, for which you provide registered agent services and with respect to which I, Oluwatoyin Saraki, am your client of record.
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Change, of Client of Record 2. Please be advised that as of today’s date the entire legal and beneficial ownership of the Company held by me has been transferred to Longmeadow Holdings Limited (“Longmeadow”).
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I therefore instruct you that with immediate effect, I should cease to be regarded as your client of record and that, going forward, your client of record will be Longmeadow. Accordingly, henceforth you should take instructions from Longmeadow relation to the Company.”
As a result of that letter, Saraki assumed full control of the company through Longmeadow.
The revelation that Saraki owns the assets hidden in his wife’s name may complicate issues for the politician who is currently being tried by Nigeria’s Code of Conduct Tribunal for allegedly failing to declare his assets in full. These new facts are also difficult to square with his earlier denials.
While not all owners or operators of such offshore entities are criminals, owning or maintaining interest in private companies while serving as a public official is against Nigerian law.
Section 6(b) of the Code of Conduct Act says a public office holder shall not, except where he is not employed on full-time basis, engage or participate in the management or running of any private business, profession or trade.
The Code of Conduct Bureau had, on 16 September 2015 served charges on Saraki, accusing him of offences, including making false declarations of assets in forms he filed before the Bureau while he was governor of Kwara state.
The Senate president was also accused of failing to declare some of his assets, acquiring assets beyond his legitimate earnings, and operating foreign accounts while being a public officer – both as a governor and a senator.
According to the charge, these offences violated sections of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended.
Saraki has denied wrongdoing, saying the case was politically motivated and that he was being persecuted for emerging as the president of the Nigerian Senate against the wishes of his political party, the ruling All Progressives Congress, which preferred a different candidate.