I’m not required to declare assets of my wife’s family – Senate president
Report neither said anything new nor confirmed old allegations – Ex-gov’s aide
By Willy Eya and Emma Emeozor
TWO high-profile Nigerian politicians have been named in Panama Papers, a massive data leak exposing the financial activities of some of the world’s rich and famous.
The four decades of documents from a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, named former Delta State Governor James Ibori and the family of Senate President Bukola Saraki as among 18 Africans involved in a network of secret offshore deals. Mossack Fonseca specialises in setting up offshore companies. More revelations are expected in the coming months as volumes of documents are still being sorted, with strong indications that names of more Africans may be revealed.
More than 11 million documents, known as the Panama Papers, were leaked by an unknown source at one world’s most secretive companies. According to the documents, four offshore companies connected to Ibori are named in the Panama Papers, one of which was used to buy a $20million (£14m) private jet. Ibori is currently serving jail term in the United Kingdom for money laundering.
Also, four assets belonging to the Saraki family have been uncovered.
Reacting, the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, said he has fully complied with the provisions of the law on declaration of assets by public officers.
Saraki’s Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said he has, in his different asset declarations, included property owned individually by himself and his wife.
He said: “The law only requires a public officer to declare both his own assets and those held by his spouse and his children under 18 years of age. The law does not require a public officer to declare assets held by the spouse’s family.
“It is not expected by the law that a public officer should declare such assets held in the spouse’s family estate. Indeed, the Code of Conduct form does not make provision for declaration of spouse’s family assets.”
Also in his reaction, Media Assistant to Ibori, Mr. Tony Eluemunor, dismissed the report, saying it has not brought anything new to the public domain.
He said that the report neither confirmed a new allegation or the old one about Ibori with regards to the private jet being bandied in the media.
His words: “You can quote me that there is nothing that is new in the report. The report did not confirm anything new. The report did not confirm any new allegation; the report did not confirm even the old allegation.
If Ibori has bought a private jet, where is the private jet now? What is the name of the private jet? This is stupid journalism. Go and read the story on ‘Curious facts of the Ibori London case.’ I challenge every journalist on earth. Let them show me the jet.”
The documents were first obtained by German newspaper, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, a year ago, led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and involving more than 100 publications from nearly 80 countries.
While holding money in offshore companies is not illegal, journalists who received the leaked documents said they could provide evidence of funds hidden for tax evasion, money laundering, sanctions busting, drug deals or other crimes.
The law firm, Mossack Fonseca, which said it has set up more than 240,000 offshore companies for clients around the globe, denied any wrongdoing and called itself the victim of a campaign against privacy.
The documents, covering a period from 1977 to last December, were leaked to more than 100 news organisations around the world, cooperating with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a Washington DC-based network. ICIJ Director Gerard Ryle said: “I think the leak will prove to be probably the biggest blow the offshore world has ever taken because of the extent of the documents.”
The British-based Tax Justice Network said too many offshore lawyers, accountants and bankers saw it as their role to shield their clients from financial regulations designed to prevent money laundering, tax evasion and corruption.
“Mossack Fonseca has been one of the giants of the offshore world for decades. They had a reputation for extreme secrecy and discretion on their clients’ behalf, which, needless to say, was attractive to many clients engaged in tax evasion, fraud, hiding conflicts of interest, and other white collar crimes,” director John Christensen said in a statement.
Panama was one of the most secretive havens in the world, but the international community had done little to force improvements there or in many other jurisdictions, including a network of British overseas territories, it said. The Central American country has declined to sign up to global transparency rules.