We are looking at the wealthiest lawmaker we have in Nigeria currently.
The source of wealth of most of these law makers in Nigeria are overwhelming. Some say they were
successful wealthy business men before they contested or even assumed public seats while majority of Nigerians will assume that they allegedly got their wealth through corrupt means of inflating contracts, stealing public funds that is meant for the same masses that put them into power.
The richest senator in Nigeria presently is Dr.Bukola Saraki. He might also be the richest Senator in Africa and even in the world. Saraki had held different positions in Nigeria before he became the Senate President of Nigeria. With the CCT trial of Bukola Saraki, a lot has been said concerning his assests which runs in billions of Naira. We will try and make public some of Bukola Saraki’s assests that was released to the public, citing credible sources with their link embeded on them for citation.
Lets first take a brief profile of Dr. Bukola Saraki. According to Wikipedia, Bukola Saraki (born Olubukola Abubakar Saraki, 19 December 1962) is a Nigerian politician who has been President of the Senate of Nigeria since 2015. Previously he was Governor of Kwara State from 2003 to 2011 before becoming a law maker. He was first elected to the Senate in April 2011, representing the Kwara Central senatorial district, and re-elected in the March 2015 elections.
He is a current member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and previous member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). With that been said, lets look at some of his known assets that qualifies him as the current richest senator in Nigeria
According to Vanguard Newspaper dated May 11, 2016, a witness told the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, sitting in Abuja that the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, owned 14 exotic cars worth N263.4 million, prior to his emergence as the governor of Kwara State in 2003.
According to Premiuim Times , dated October 20, 2015 Saraki was worth N10 billion (by current exchange rate) at the time he assumed office as governor of Kwara State in 2003. While his entire assets, including cash, landed properties and shares in Nigeria and abroad stood at about N8 billion, those of his wife totalled N1.8 billion and his four children N202 million.
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These are contained in the asset declaration form and the affidavit Mr. Saraki deposed to before an Ilorin High Court and submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau on September 16, 2003.
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According to the same Premium Times, The assets declaration form showed that Mr. Saraki, who was a little over 40 years at the time he assumed office, had only N2.5 million cash at hand and a total of N51 million in various Nigerian banks at the time he filed the document.
He was also worth a total of £2.9 million and $400,000 lodged in some foreign banks at the time. That was besides owning landed and movable assets running into billions of naira and pound sterling in Nigeria and London.
He also held a substantial number of shares in a number of local and foreign companies valued at millions of naira and pounds.
Mr. Saraki said while he had N11,050,000 in the defunct Societe Generale Bank, where his family had interest, he had N350,000, N3 million and N390,000 in EcoBank, Guaranty Trust Bank and the defunct Citizen Bank, respectively, all in Lagos.
Besides, one of Mr. Saraki’s companies – Better Foods Ltd – had N600,000 and N23 million in Citizen Bank, Broad Street, Lagos and Societe Generale Bank, Oke Arin Street, Lagos, respectively.
Two other companies, namely Carlisle Properties & Investment Limited and BAS Trading and Manufacturing Ltd had N10.2 million and N2.9 million in accounts domiciled in EcoBank and Guaranty Trust Bank.
The senate president, in Appendix 2 of the document, declared a total of £905,000 in one of his offshore accounts domiciled in Coutts & Co. 440 Strand, London.
Tyberry Corporation, another of his companies, had £2 million in Forte Bank, Camoile Street, London.
He also opened an account for his company, Eficaz Ltd, at Northern Trust International Banking Corporation Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner, where he had $400,000 at the time he declared the assets.
In Appendix 3 of the form, Mr. Saraki also detailed eight landed property scattered in various parts of Lagos and Abuja which he said he acquired between December 1991 and March 2000, all valued at N2.3 billion.
According to him, a plot of land in Lekki, Lagos that he acquired in February 1992 was valued at N7 million while another one in Ajah he got in November 1992 was valued at N5 million.
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Yet in November 1996, he acquired a plot in the Maitama District at N160 million.
Other properties he declared are those owned by his companies – a N750 million property at 42 Gerrard Road, Ikoyi owned by Skyview Properties Ltd; a N500 million property at 19 Ruxton road, Ikoyi, Lagos by Skyview Properties Ltd; and a N100 million property at 62 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi.
He declared the rental value of the property as N110 million, N65 million and N6 million per annum, respectively.
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One of his companies, Carlisle Properties Ltd owned a property worth N160 million at No 15A & 15B McDonald Road, Ikoyi while BAS Trading owned a property on Musa Yar’Adua Street, Victoria Island, also in Lagos, valued at N700 million.
The rental income of the latter was N96 million per annum. He did not disclose that of the former.
Outside Nigeria, Mr. Saraki had landed property worth $12.9 million, all of which he listed in Appendix 5.
The properties, according to the document, were all located in London, UK.
According to him, the value of the properties at 123 Ashley Gardens, Thirlebey Road, London, (acquired in April 1990), 54 Ashley Road Gardens, Ambrasden Avenue ( acquired in January 1995) and 70 Bourne Street, London SW 1 (acquired in January 2002), were valued at $750,000, $2.55 million and $4.8 million, respectively.
He also declared some properties as belonging to his companies.
The property at 56 Cheque Road, London (valued at $900,000) and another located at Ormond House, Crimond Street, London SW 1 (valued at $400,000) were owned by European & America Trading Company.
Three others located at 53, 54 and 141 Ashley Gardens, London, were owned by Tyberry Corporation. The values were $2.5 million, $2.5 million and $600,000.
In Appendix 4, Mr. Saraki listed 15 various movable assets, mainly motor vehicles which he acquired between 1997 and 2002 all at a total value of N263.4 million.
The vehicles and their prices are a Mercedes S320 valued at N16 million; Mercedes S500 (N20 million); Mercedes G500 (N18 million); Mercedes V220 (N6million); Mercedes 300 E (N2 million); Ferrari 456 GT (N25 million); Navigator (N15 million); Mercedes ML 240 (N8.5 million); Peugeot 406 (N2.9 million); Mercedes CLK 320 (N9 million).
Others are Mercedes E320 (N11 million); Mercedes 500 (Bullet Proof), N45 million; Mercedes S500 (Bullet Proof), N30 million; Lexus Jeep (Bullet Proof), N30 million; and Lincoln Navigator (Bullet Proof), N25 million.
He said he acquired the cars proceeds of “Business” and “Savings.”
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The embattled senate president is currently on trial for alleged corruption and false declaration of assets.
Mr. Saraki also declared a number of shares he held in different companies in Nigeria and abroad.
For instance, in Nigeria, the senate president said at the time he became governor he had a total of 1,204,653 shares in four companies valued at N2.2 million.
The companies were African Petroleum, UNIPETROL, Airline Catering and Central Petroleum.
Other organisations where he held huge shares were GTB where he had 100,000 worth N425,000.
These shares in the bank were however bought in his son’s name, Seni.
Outside Nigeria, Mr. Saraki declared he had shares in five companies, namely Gensoft, All African Media Coy, Merrill BBH Fund, Mundernet Fund and Izorch Inc.
The 100,000 shares he held at Gensoft were valued at €2.6 million while the total number of shares in the remaining four companies was worth $6.1 million.
His company, HAUSSMAN, however held 160 units of shares with a total value of $1.5 million in some foreign companies. It had 25,000 shares valued at $100,000 in Mundernet Fund, 10,000 valued at $400,000 in Eaton Vanice Fund, 50,000 shares valued at $700,000 in PIMCO Fund and 75,000 shares worth $300,000 in Merrill BBH.
All these assests listed plus the salary of being a senator in Nigeria coupled with the fact that he is the Senate President and other allowances certainly makes Dr. Bukola Saraki, the richest law maker in Nigeria, Africa and even in the world
In no particular order, Below is a list of top 10 richest senators in Nigeria 2017
1. Dr. Bukola Saraki
2. Ben Murray Bruce
3. Godswill Akpabio
4. Dino Melaye
5. Oluremi Tinubu
6. David Mark
7. Stella Oduah
8. Ali Ndume
9. Andy UBA
10. Theodore Orji