EXCLUSIVE breakdown of the N10billion assets Saraki declared as governor

As the country adjust to the corruption fighting Era, The President of the Nigerian Senate, Bukola Saraki, currently facing corruption charges, was worth N10 billion (by current exchange rate) at the time he assumed office as governor of Kwara State in 2003 according to an exclusive report of the N10billion assets Saraki declared as governor published on Premium Times this morning.

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While his entire assets, including cash, landed properties and shares in Nigeria and abroad stood at about N8 billion, those of his wife totalled N1.8 billion and his four children N202 million.

These are contained in the asset declaration form and the affidavit Mr. Saraki deposed to before an Ilorin High Court and submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau on September 16, 2003.

The document entitled “Form CCB 1: Asset Declaration Form for Public Officers,” was exclusively obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.

Mr. Saraki was on September 18 this year docked at the Code of Conduct Tribunal on a 13-count charge bordering on alleged corruption and false declaration of assets.

He was specifically accused of deliberately manipulating the asset declaration form he submitted prior to his assumption of his current position as senate president.

Although he pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming his ordeal was politically motivated, the CCT adjourned the case to October 21, 22 and 23 for further hearing.

His wife had earlier been invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over alleged complicity in shady contract deals during her husband’s tenure as governor between 2003 and 2011.

The assets declaration form showed that Mr. Saraki, who was a little over 40 years at the time he assumed office, 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 was also worth a total of £2.9 million and $400,000 lodged in some foreign banks at the time. That was besides owning landed and movable assets running into billions of naira and pound sterling in Nigeria and London.

He also held a substantial number of shares in a number of local and foreign companies valued at millions of naira and pounds.

Mr. Saraki said while he had N11,050,000 in the defunct Societe Generale Bank, where his family had interest, he had N350,000, N3 million and N390,000 in EcoBank, Guaranty Trust Bank and the defunct Citizen Bank, respectively, all in Lagos.

Besides, one of Mr. Saraki’s companies – Better Foods Ltd – had N600,000 and N23 million in Citizen Bank, Broad Street, Lagos and Societe Generale Bank, Oke Arin Street, Lagos, respectively.

Two other companies, namely Carlisle Properties & Investment Limited and BAS Trading and Manufacturing Ltd had N10.2 million and N2.9 million in accounts domiciled in EcoBank and Guaranty Trust Bank.

The senate president, in Appendix 2 of the document, declared a total of £905 million in one of his offshore accounts domiciled in Coutts & Co. 440 Strand, London.

Tyberry Corporation, another of his companies, had £2 million in Forte Bank, Camoile Street, London.
He also opened an account for his company, Eficaz Ltd, at Northern Trust International Banking Corporation Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner, where he had $400,000 at the time he declared the assets.

In Appendix 3 of the form, Mr. Saraki also detailed eight landed property scattered in various parts of Lagos and Abuja which he said he acquired between December 1991 and March 2000, all valued at N2.3 billion.

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.

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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.”

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