A former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Paul Ogwuma and his wife have allegedly acquired property worth £33 million (N15.6 billion). A
A former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Paul Ogwuma and his wife have allegedly acquired property worth £33 million (N15.6 billion). According to a UK investigative journalism magazine, Private Eye, Paul Ogwuma, served as the managing director/CEO of Union Bank of Nigeria prior to his appointment as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria in September, 1993.
In its report titled “Abuja on Thames” the paper said it has identified a network of 15 British companies owned or controlled by Anna Ogwuma, wife of the ex CBN chief adding that her husband looted his country under 1990s military dictatorship, adding that the Paul Ogwuma over the years amassed a £33m British property empire.
“Paul Ogwuma, 86, was governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria during the brutal and kleptocratic rule of General Sani Abacha, when the bank was the latter’s personal piggy-bank. Some estimates suggest looting under Abacha ran to billions of dollars. Under his successor for one year, retired general Abdulsalami Abubakar, Ogwuma oversaw a depletion in Nigeria’s foreign currency reserves of around $3bn, or 40%,” the report read.
“Between 2002 and 2017, her companies were used for 20 separate property purchases. They ranged from commercial sites in the north of England to luxury apartments in west London. Among them are townhouses in Kensington and Paddington, a couple of apartments in Mayfair, and premises in Bishop’s Stortford town centre that currently house a branch of Greggs.”
The report added that although the Abacha era and its excesses are receding into history, banks that were often complicit at the time might be expected to know some of this history.
“Yet Mrs Ogwuma’s most valuable properties were either bought or remortgaged with loans from Barclays Bank (which handled $170m of Abacha’s ill-gotten wealth) and Lloyds Bank in the years after 2015.
“While times have moved on, so has the law on money laundering, and Mrs Ogwuma’s lavish property buying should have prompted questions about the origin of her money. The looting of Africa has a long legacy on the streets of Britain”.
