Paul Ogwuma, former governor of
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and his wife have acquired property worth £33
million (N15.6 billion), a UK investigative journalism magazine has revealed.
According to the magazine,
Private Eye, Ogwuma, who served as CBN governor for six years has “amassed a
£33m British property empire”.
In its report titled “Abuja on
Thames” the paper said it “has identified a network of 15 British companies
owned or controlled by Anna Ogwuma,” wife of the governor, adding that her
husband “looted his country under 1990s military dictatorship”.
“Paul Ogwuma, 86, was governor of
the Central Bank of Nigeria during the brutal and kleptocratic rule of General
Sani Abacha, when the bank was the latter’s personal piggy-bank. Some estimates
suggest looting under Abacha ran to billions of dollars,” the report read.
“Under his successor for one
year, retired general Abdulsalami Abubakar, Ogwuma oversaw a depletion in
Nigeria’s foreign currency reserves of around $3bn, or 40%”.
“Between 2002 and 2017, her
companies were used for 20 separate property purchases. They ranged from
commercial sites in the north of England to luxury apartments in west London.
“Among them are townhouses in
Kensington and Paddington, a couple of apartments in Mayfair, and premises in
Bishop’s Stortford town centre that currently house a branch of Greggs.”
The report added that “although
the Abacha era and its excesses are receding into history, banks that were
often complicit at the time might be expected to know some of this history.
“Yet Mrs Ogwuma’s most valuable
properties were either bought or remortgaged with loans from Barclays Bank
(which handled $170m of Abacha’s ill-gotten wealth) and Lloyds Bank in the
years after 2015.
“While times have moved on, so
has the law on money laundering, and Mrs Ogwuma’s lavish property buying should
have prompted questions about the origin of her money. The looting of Africa
has a long legacy on the streets of Britain”.
Ogwuma served as the managing
director/CEO of Union Bank of Nigeria prior to his appointment as the Governor
of Central Bank of Nigeria in September, 1993.
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