UWOs: Saraki may lose N7.2bn London property
In United Kingdom, the Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) takes effect from Monday 6th August, two properties worth about N7.2billion suspected to belong to Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, may be lost to the new law’s daring and clawing fangs.
The law is particularly useful where there is no realistic prospect of cooperation or conviction in the country of origin (Nigeria), but there are sufficient grounds for suspicion that an asset has been acquired with the proceeds of corruption.
The property in question is located on numbers 7, 8 Whittaker Street, Belgravia in London. The suspected owner is Dr Bukola Saraki, the almighty President of the Nigerian Senate. The open market price of the house is estimated between £6 million and £9 million respectively.
The Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) comes in to force from Monday. They are a new investigative power designed to help law enforcement agencies to act on corrupt or alleged corrupt assets. This is something that Transparency International has been advocating for since 2014.
Law enforcement agencies attention has been called to the property in question to consider using UWOs in forming a case for civil recovery proceedings. It is believed it was acquired using potentially illicit wealth.
Land Registry documents show that these two addresses 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, Dr. 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. 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 of Nigeria (SGBN) owned by his late father, Dr Olusola Abubakar Saraki and when he was Special Assistant to the President Olusegun Obasanjo on Budget Matters.
The explanation he provided for these acquisitions was stated simply as “business”. Saraki was involved in a Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) case around allegations of false asset declarations from his tenure as Governor of Kwara state. The Supreme Court ruled in his favour.
Politically, Dr Saraki is facing a massive political tempest with the recent rebellion he led within the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) by porting to the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). By the time the parliament will be resuming he may be faced with renewed survival fight to hold unto the leadership of the upper echelon of the parliament’s Red Chambers. (Gongnews.net)