By Samuel Olusegun Precious
Fresh investigations have traced 284 properties in the United States collectively valued at nearly $271 million — about N370 billion — to 61 current and former high-level Nigerian officials, their families, associates and affiliated companies.
The report titled “Dirty Deeds: How Top Nigerian Officials Bought a Piece of America” was released in Abuja on Tuesday, September 22, by the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF) in partnership with the Anti-Corruption Data Collective (ACDC).
According to the findings:
– The properties were acquired from 1991 onwards, but mostly after the return to civilian rule in 1999.
– 152 properties worth about $177 million were purchased while the officials were still in office — when their access to state resources was greatest.
– 230 properties, about 81%, worth $232 million were bought without apparent financing — no mortgage records — a major red flag for money laundering.
– 147 properties worth $111 million were bought directly in the names of officials or their spouses.
– 104 properties worth $140 million were bought through companies, with 12 cases using US-incorporated entities affiliated with their Nigerian firms to obscure ownership.
PPLAAF said 39 of the 61 individuals have already been publicly accused, indicted or sentenced for corruption by the media, EFCC, ICPC or foreign courts. Those 39 alone are linked to 232 properties worth about $238 million.
Top names mentioned in the report include former Abia Governor Orji Kalu, former Aviation Minister Stella Oduah, former NSA Sambo Dasuki, former pension boss Abdulrasheed Maina, late Oyo Governor Abiola Ajimobi, former Enugu Governor Chimaroke Nnamani, former Chief of Defence Staff Alex Badeh, former Interior Minister Abdulrahman Dambazau, former Anambra Governors Chris Ngige and Willie Obiano, former JAMB Registrar Dibu Ojerinde, and family members of former President Olusegun Obasanjo — whose immediate family was linked to $9m worth of US property over 26 years.
The investigation said no property was directly in Obasanjo’s name, but linked to his son and grandchildren.
PPLAAF Executive Director Jimmy Kande said the purchases could amount to international money laundering and must be investigated.
“At an unprecedented scale, these findings expose the failings of individual officials and the structural gaps that allow stolen public wealth to cross borders and settle quietly into foreign real estate. Nigerian and American authorities must work together to ensure these assets are returned to the people they were taken from.”
The group urged the EFCC and US authorities to pursue freezing, seizure and recovery where links to corruption are established
