With 270 Heads of Cattle, 25 Sheep, Buhari Makes Asset Public

President Muhammadu Buhari and his deputy, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo

• President had less than N30 million on May 29 
• Osinbajo's bank balance is N279 million

Tobi Soniyi in Abuja   

Documents submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) showed that the president had less than N30 million in his account as at May 29 when he was sworn in as president.

As at the same date, his deputy, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), had N94 million, $900,000 as well £19,000 in his accounts.
The duo had promptly filled and submitted their assets declaration forms to the CCB before they were sworn in. But the details were not made known to the public.

The information contained in the documents was yesterday, confirmed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu.

Buhari, a former Head of State, was at different times a governor, minister of petroleum and the head of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF).

The documents submitted to the CCB, which officials said were still being vetted and would soon be made public, showed that prior to being sworn in on May 29, Buhari had less than N30 million to his name.

He also had only one bank account with the Union Bank.

Buhari had no foreign account, no factory and no enterprises.  He also had no registered company and no oil well.

Osinbajo, who had been a successful lawyer before his foray into politics, declared a balance of about N94 million, US$900,000 and £19,000 in his bank accounts with the foreign currencies kept in local domiciliary accounts.

Buhari declared however that he had shares in Berger Paints, Union Bank and Skye Bank.  

“This is entirely unlike what one might expect from a former head of state of a country like Nigeria,” a source who was given the document to handle said.

The documents also revealed that Buhari had a total of five homes, and two mud houses in Daura.  He had two homes in Kaduna, one each in Kano, Daura and Abuja.

One of the mud houses in Daura was inherited from his late older sister, another from his late father.  He borrowed money from the old Barclays Bank to build two of his homes.

Buhari also has two undeveloped plots of land, one in Kano and the other in Port Harcourt.  He is still trying to trace the location of the Port Harcourt land.

In addition to the homes in Daura, he has farms, an orchard and a ranch. The total number of his holdings in the farm include 270 heads of cattle, 25 sheep, five horses, a variety of birds and a number of economic trees.  

The documents also showed that the president uses a number of cars, two of which he bought from his savings and the others supplied to him by the federal government in his capacity as a former Head of State.

The rest were donated to him by well-wishers after his sports utility van (SUV) was damaged in a Boko Haram bomb attack on his convoy in July 2014.

As revealed by the same forms, highlights of Osinbajo’s asset declaration include his four-bedroom residence at Victoria Garden City, Lagos and a three-bedroom flat at 2 Mosley Road, Ikoyi.

The vice-president also has a two-bedroom flat at the popular Redemption Camp along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and a two-bedroom mortgaged property in Bedford, England.

Aside from these, the vice-president has no other landed property on the form.

Apart from his law firm, known as SimmonsCooper, the vice-president also declared shareholding in six private companies based in Lagos, including Octogenerium Ltd., Windsor Grant Ltd., Tarapolsa, Vistorion Ltd., Aviva Ltd., and MTN Nigeria.

His personal vehicles include one Infinity 4-Wheel Drive SUV, one Mercedes Benz and a Prado Jeep.

“As soon as the CCB is through with the process, the documents will be released to the Nigerian public and people can see for themselves,” the source said.