Nigerian elites siphoned millions from govt, bought US properties: study
LAGOS, Nigeria, (AFP) — Dozens of Nigerian political elites siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from the Government purse over decades and laundered it through buying properties in the United States, an NGO report said on Tuesday.
Corruption is endemic in Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest economies and its top oil producer.
The report’s findings thrust graft back into the spotlight months before January’s presidential election, which economic hardships and growing insecurity will define.
Since coming to office in 2023, President Bola Tinubu, who will seek re-election, declared war on graft but high-profile corruption trials are grinding slowly through the courts.
In the report, the investigative NGO Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF) lists “284 United States properties” collectively worth around US$271 million and “linked to 61 current and former high-level Nigerian officials”.
The investigation, which examined properties acquired since the end of military rule in 1999, also alleged the war against jihadists continues to enrich the “military elites”.
More than half of the properties were bought by the officials during tenure “at precisely the moment when their access to State resources and influence was greatest”.
The report examined 61 individuals.
A total 39 of them have already been “publicly accused, indicted, or sentenced for corruption”, said the non-profit organisation, which specialises in protecting whistleblowers in Africa.
Most of the properties were bought without mortgage financing, raising “red flags for money laundering”.
But international cooperation that should enable seizure of such assets “remains limited”, said PPLAAF.
Nigeria is Washington’s second-largest African trading partner after South Africa and Nigerians in the United States form the largest African diaspora.
Among the officials PPLAAF identified were lawmakers and officials from state governments and security agencies.
The largest number of properties were found to have been bought by officials from the security sector.
