Obi zeroes in on Tinubu’s source of wealth, as Adebanjo does
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
“Bola Tinubu, the great philanthropist, should also disclose the source of his wealth with which he bankrolled the elections of APC in the Southwest and that of General Muhammad Buhari and his various properties in Lagos” – Afenifere leader Ayo Adebanjo.
Peter Obi says Bola Tinubu is in poor health and his supporters are only after the money he doles out, the source of which Tinubu has repeatedly failed to disclose.
Tinubu is the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party of Muhammadu Buhari, who has gone on medical tourism in the United Kingdom several times in his seven years as Nigeria’s President.
Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), made the remarks in a viral video in which he questioned Tinubu’s health and source of wealth.
Afenifere leader Ayo Adebayo has also publicly challenged Tinubu to tell Nigerians how he made his money.
Obi’s words: “Somebody said to me that this candidate ‘fought Abacha regime to a stand still.’ That ‘he even lost everything.’ I said, ‘but he has two planes now. Where is his company?’
“Once he comes here and gives you money, you will say Jagaban is the best candidate even when the man is not well. That’s the problem of the country.
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Nigeria in crisis
“My brother, we are in a crisis. That’s why I’m pleading to all of us. Let us go and take back our country and run it like any other country where the leader is responsible to the people,” Obi stressed, per Vanguard reporting.
“The people can question the rascality and the behaviour of their leader. Bad behaviour has become a measure of success in our system.”
Tinubu’s health generates concern among the public, which he has dismissed, insisting he is healthy enough to withstand the rigours of ruling a boisterous population of 206 million.
But what he cannot dismiss, and should answer, are persistent questions about his source of wealth, from which he donates millions of naira to causes that grease his political ambition.
Disclose your sources of wealth, Adebanjo challenges Tinubu, Akande
Adebanjo in December 2021 called a press conference where he challenged Tinubu and former Osun Governor Bisi Akande to disclosure their sources of wealth.
He was reacting to the allegation Akande made his book My Participations that Tinubu built Adebanjo’s house for him.
Adebanjo disclosed how he made money and built his house in Lekki and asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate his claims.
Akande is not seeking public office at this moment.
But Tinubu is running for President, and he has still not responded to the challenge thrown at him by Adebanjo that he should disclose his source of wealth, as transparency and probity demand.
Below is the full statement Adebanjo read out at the press conference held in his house in Lekki, Lagos:
‘Malicious falsehood’
About a week ago, last Thursday, 7 December to be exact at the presentation of the book My Participations by Chief Bisi Akande it was said that Chief Bisi Akande stated in the book that I brought pressure on Bola Tinubu to build the house for me.
But since Bola Tinubu himself was present at the presentation I expect him within a few days to refute such a malicious falsehood about me emanating from his Man Friday.
I hold this view because Bola Tinubu just some 3 years ago on the occasion of the presentation of my auto-biography Saying It As It Is that for my incorruptibility and strength of character he, Bola Tinubu, would not have been Governor of Lagos State in 1999.
What then could he be demanding from me after his two-term governorship to make me pressurize him to build a house for me, when I did not get a naira from him before he became the governor?
There has been a lot of pressure on me not to react to Chief Bisi Akande’s tantrums, he is a neophyte, a beneficiary of a struggle he never took part in.
I have been urged to keep to the adage “not to answer a fool lest you reduce yourself to his level,” but there is also an adage that says, “Answer a fool lest he thinks he is wise.”
A lot has been said in the press and the social media to demolish tantrums. But I owe a duty to myself and to put the record straight for posterity about the big lie that Bola Tinubu built my house in Lekki for me.
I therefore [declare] categorically that my house at Lekki was built with my resources through the sale of 3 developed properties, loan from GTBank and the sale of undeveloped landed property given me by my late leader Chief Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory.
The details are as follows:
First house
1. A 4 bedroom duplex with 2 bedroom flat enclosed with 2 undeveloped plots at plot 4, block 14, Nuru Oniwo Street, Aguda Surulere, Lagos State, this is where I was living before moving to Lekki.
The house was commissioned in 1972 by Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
A wing of the duplex was once occupied by a staff of the security outfit then known as “special branch” headed then by the late Alhaji M.D. Yussuf who later became Inspector General of Police when General Olusegun Obasanjo was the Head of State.
It was later occupied by one of the wives of Chief Pius Akinyelure, who often visited his wife there in company of Senator Bola Tinubu.
The gate of this property was forced open by Abacha security forces when NADECO was holding a sendoff party for American ambassador Walter Carrington in my house.
I took the Federal Government to court for damages and I was awarded N1 million naira which has not been paid till today by the Federal Government, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba SAN, was my counsel.
The house was sold to St Baths Aglican Church, Aguda, Surulere.
Second house
2. Two storey building at Odedola Street, Surulere, Lagos State. I bought it through an estate agent by name Mr. Shiwoniku who has relocated to the UK; he has a brother who is a legal practitioner in Abuja.
The house was sold to a Ghanaian by name Mr Akappo. He is still alive and he lives in one of the flats in the building.
Third house
3. Four storey building with a warehouse on the ground floor and six flats on top. It was commissioned by Chief Awolowo in 1977.
I inherited the plot of 45’X100’ from my mother, Salamotu Anomo-Adebanjo, who built a bungalow on it.
She bought the land when I was in primary school in 1940 from one Pa. Idowu Onitiri for £20, which she paid by installments of £10, £7, £3.
His son, Akanbi Onitiri, executed the conveyance for me without extra payment after showing him the purchase receipts from his father, when I was developing it in 1976.
Akanbi Onitiri is the father of Sumbo Onitiri, a well known estate surveyor in Lagos.
The building was sold to a woman through an estate agent.
House in Lekki
I then took a loan from GTBank to complete the house in Lekki where I am living now.
When the interest on the loan became unbearable, I was compelled to sell the undeveloped land given to me by Chief Awolowo in Dide-Olu Estate in Maroko Victoria Island.
One Mr. Ade Otusanya, a friend of my son, Femi Ayo-Adebanjo, bought the land.
The contractor who built my Lekki house is Engr. Hakeem Sulaiman, Senior Partner of Messrs HA associates.
The Electrical and Mechanical Contractor is Engr. Tokunbo Oshokoya, Senior Partner of Messrs Oshea Projects.
The Architect is Mr. Deji Johnson
The Quantity Surveyor is the late Otunba T.B Adebayo.
Entire houses
The Lekki property, the house in my village, Isanya Ogbo, and a 3 bedroom flat in a town house on Omorinre Street in Lekki are the properties I have in the whole world.
I hereby authorize the EFCC to verify the above facts.
Tinubu built houses for Akande
It is alleged that Chief Bisi Akande’s building at Ila-Orogun, which I understand is more than double in expanse of my house in Lekki, and some other properties he has in Lagos and abroad were financed by Bola Tinubu.
His house in Ibadan was also alleged to have been built by the contractor that built the secretariat in Oshogbo, when he was the Governor of Osun State.
I hereby challenge Chief Bisi Akande to clear the air by disclosing the source of financing these properties as I have done above.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the great philanthropist, should also disclose the source of his wealth with which he bankrolled the elections of APC in the Southwest and that of General Muhammad Buhari and his various properties in Lagos.
He should also authorize the EFCC to verify such details as I have done above.
Thank you very much.
God bless Nigeria
CHIEF AYO ADEBANJO
16/12/2021
