Bukola Saraki
Senate president Bukola Saraki is currently facing a 13-count charge of manipulating his asset declaration form.
Saraki, was worth N10billion (by current exchange rates) at the time he assumed office as governor of Kwara state in 2003.
While his entire assets, including cash, landed properties and shares in Nigeria and abroad totalled about N8billion, his wife’s were N1.8 billion and his four children a total of N202 million, Premium Times reports
The assets are detailed in the asset declaration form and the affidavit Saraki presented before an Ilorin High Court and submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau on September 16, 2003.
His wife was also called upon by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission due to some shady contract deals between 2003 and 2011, while her husband was governor.
According to the asset declaration form made available by Saraki at that time, he had only N2.5 million cash at hand and a total of N51 million in various Nigerian banks at the time he filed the document. He also had a total of £2.9 million and $400,000 kept in some foreign banks at the time.
This was besides owning landed and movable assets running into billions of naira and pounds sterling in Nigeria and London.
According to him, a plot of land in Lekki, Lagos that he acquired in February 1992 was valued at N7 million while another one in Ajah he got in November 1992 was valued at N5 million.
Yet in November 1996, he acquired a plot in the Maitama District at N160 million. Other properties he declared are those owned by his companies – a N750 million property at 42 Gerrard Road, Ikoyi owned by Skyview Properties Ltd; a N500 million property at 19 Ruxton road, Ikoyi, Lagos by Skyview Properties Ltd; and a N100 million property at 62 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi.
He declared the rental value of the property as N110 million, N65 million and N6 million per annum, respectively.
One of his companies, Carlisle Properties Ltd owned a property worth N160 million at No 15A & 15B McDonald Road, Ikoyi while BAS Trading owned a property on Musa Yar’Adua Street, Victoria Island, also in Lagos, valued at N700 million.
The rental income of the latter was N96 million per annum. He did not disclose that of the former.
Outside Nigeria, Mr. Saraki had landed property worth $12.9 million, all of which he listed in Appendix 5. The properties, according to the document, were all located in London, UK.
According to him, the value of the properties at 123 Ashley Gardens, Thirlebey Road, London, (acquired in April 1990), 54 Ashley Road Gardens, Ambrasden Avenue ( acquired in January 1995) and 70 Bourne Street, London SW 1 (acquired in January 2002), were valued at $750,000, $2.55 million and $4.8 million, respectively.
He also declared some properties as belonging to his companies.
The property at 56 Cheque Road, London (valued at $900,000) and another located at Ormond House, Crimond Street, London SW 1 (valued at $400,000) were owned by European & America Trading Company.
Three others located at 53, 54 and 141 Ashley Gardens, London, were owned by Tyberry Corporation. The values were $2.5 million, $2.5 million and $600,000.
In Appendix 4, Mr. Saraki listed 15 various movable assets, mainly motor vehicles which he acquired between 1997 and 2002 all at a total value of N263.4 million.
The vehicles and their prices are a Mercedes S320 valued at N16 million; Mercedes S500 (N20 million); Mercedes G500 (N18 million); Mercedes V220 (N6million); Mercedes 300 E (N2 million); Ferrari 456 GT (N25 million); Navigator (N15 million); Mercedes ML 240 (N8.5 million); Peugeot 406 (N2.9 million); Mercedes CLK 320 (N9 million).
Others are Mercedes E320 (N11 million); Mercedes 500 (Bullet Proof), N45 million; Mercedes S500 (Bullet Proof), N30 million; Lexus Jeep (Bullet Proof), N30 million; and Lincoln Navigator (Bullet Proof), N25 million.
He said he acquired the cars proceeds of “Business” and “Savings.”