Investigation by SaharaReporters into the
assets of Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Lieutenant-General Abdulrahman
Dambazau (ret.) has discovered that he and his wife own properties in the US worth millions of dollars
It has been discovered that Mr. Dambazau and his wife own properties in the US worth about three million dollars, which raises questions about the source of
the minister’s funds.
SaharaReporters investigators found that the
minister’s real estate holdings include an impressive and expensive and huge
seven-bedroom house he purchased in Winchester, Massachusetts, a few miles
outside of Boston. The property cost $1.99 million.
Mr. Dambazau’s massive 6,500 square feet home
also boasts six bathrooms, an eat-in kitchen, an enclosed backyard, a front
porch, central air conditioning, a spa bathtub in the master bedroom, a
fireplace, and hardwood floors throughout. Descriptions of the property also
state that the
“master bedroom has a cathedral ceiling, double walk-in closet,
linen closet, a spa-like tub, and a separate shower with three shower heads,
and double sinks.”
Mr. Dambazau purchased the Winchester
property shortly after it was built in 2013. According to the deed of ownership
he bought the property on August 29th, 2013 from the building firm for one
million nine hundred and ninety thousand dollars ($1,990,000).
Investigations also revealed that Mr.
Dambazau sold the property to new buyers for $2 million on May 28th,
2015 (exactly one day before President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in in Abuja).
The property sale document includes Mr. Dambazau’s passport number A06275929
and is notarized by Amy Kornbluth, the Vice Consul of the US Embassy in Abuja.
In addition to the deed of ownership, also obtained were the Declaration of Homestead form that clearly
states,
“We, Hadiza B. Dambazau and Abdulrahman Dambazau, are the owner(s) of
the premises located at 109 Church Street Winchester, MA 01890, by virtue of a
deed.”
It was disclosed earlier that Mr.
Dambazau and other top military officers were in a panic as the investigation
panel prepared its latest interim report. Several military and political
sources in Abuja revealed that Mr. Dambazau, who served as Nigeria’s Chief of
Army Staff (COAS) between 2008 and 2010, worked furiously behind the scenes to
suppress aspects of the probe panel’s report that implicated him.
The investigation into Mr. Dambazau’s
inexplicable real estate assets comes on the heels of public outrage that the
minister’s name was removed from the list of serving, and retired military
officers recommended for further investigation by a presidential panel that
investigated arms and equipment procurement fraud in the Nigerian armed forces
between 2007 and 2015.
In response to public outrage, Nigeria’s
Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, issued a statement denying that
the report was influenced by figures outside the investigation panel.
In addition to the home in Winchester, Mr.
Dambazau’s wife, Hadiza Dambazau, recently purchased a condominium in the city
of Boston. The property is part of the Millennium Avery Condominium complex.
Documents obtained by our investigators show that Mrs. Dambazau has had the
property in her name since its purchase on May 19th, 2016. The deed states that
the condominium was purchased for $892,000 and is Unit #410 located at 580
Washington Street, Boston MA, 02111.
Mr. Dambazau also owns other assets and
properties in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. The assets are hard to explain, given
the relative modesty of the salary earned by Nigerian military officers. The
minister’s properties include Hajjar
Plaza, an impressive building along Ahmadu Bello Way that contains numerous
offices, and Lebrex Plaza, located
in Utako, along Ajose Adeogun Street, which also has many shops and businesses.
SaharaReporters also found that the Interior Minister owns a huge real estate
at 15 Dodoma Street, in Wuse Zone 6 in Abuja.
The investigation discovered that Mr. Dambazau
often used Mohammed Dauda as a front to purchase several of his real estate
assets in Nigeria. Several sources told our correspondent that Mr. Dauda is the
chairman of Labrex International Ltd.
President Buhari’s spokesman, Femi Adesina,
when asked, respond to Mr. Dambazau’s extensive acquisition of real estate
assets, by stating, “I have no
information on this issue,” adding that he could not comment further.
Garba Shehu, President Buhari’s media and publicity aide, pointed our
Sahara correspondent to the president’s statement issued two days ago that he “would not cover up or hide corrupt conduct
by those in his government.”
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