On Monday, a list of Politically Exposed Nigerians (PEPs) with expensive properties in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), was released.
The list was part of ‘Dubai Unlocked,’ a six-month probe of UAE’s booming and secretive property market led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) together with more than 70 media partners.
Quoting the Dubai Land Department, the report listed Nigerians as the second-highest foreign purchasers of Dubai properties after Indians.
Two former governors of Kaduna, Ahmed Makarfi and Nasir El-Rufai, were listed among Nigerian property owners in Dubai.
While Makarfi is said to own a Burj Khalifa property valued at $822,016, El-Rufai reportedly owns a four-bedroom flat valued at $193,084 at Al Hebiah Third.
Interestingly, one year before this investigation was conducted, El-Rufai claimed that the only house he owns anywhere in the world is in Kaduna.
In an interview on a local radio station, El-Rufai specifically said he did not siphon the state’s money to Dubai. He also challenged his predecessors in the state to swear that they did not steal from Kaduna’s treasury.
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“I am happy that we constructed qualitative roads that would last for years. Not those kinds of roads they have constructed in the past, which after two years, after two rainy seasons, the roads would be bad.
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“We still have work to do. Our plan is that we want all roads in Kaduna to be tarred. Anyone who comes to Kaduna wouldn’t see a muddy road. The people can see that we executed those projects with the loan we secured. We didn’t siphon the money to Dubai and buy houses or go to Jabi Road and build a mansion.
“We aren’t like such people. I became the Governor of Kaduna State with only one house located at Danja Street in Unguwan Sarki Kaduna. I have completed my tenure, Alhamdulillah…that is my only house. I don’t have any other house. I didn’t build a mansion. I don’t even need it.”