According to Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an American-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), former Deputy Senate President of the 8th Assembly, Ike Ekweremadu, is reportedly among 334 prominent Nigerians who are linked to 800 properties scattered around the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The Senator who hails from Amiri Local Government Area in Enugu State and a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has served in the Nigerian Senate since May 2003 for four consecutive assemblies—6th, 7th, 8th and 9th assemblies. His protracted stay in the senate could easily earn him the title of “permanent member” representing Enugu West Senatorial District.
Notably, during the pendency of his tenure as Deputy Senate President, Ekweremadu acquired two flats in Al Barsha South Fourth located in the heart of Dubai. Documents of purchase attached to the properties show his date of birth as 5th December, 1962 with Passport No.A50194*** issued on 14th July, 2016 and a Dubai contact number. These properties were reportedly not declared in his Code of Conduct Bureau as expressed in paragraph 3(c) of the Third Schedule, Part 1 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.
Each flat in the exotic neighbourhood was estimated to be from 700,000 AED to 1,150,000 AED which is approximately Seventy Two Million Naira to One Hundred and Twenty Million Naira.
In 2018, the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property filed an Ex-Parte motion against the Enugu-born Senator for the forfeiture of assets. Ekweremadu pleaded not guilty to all the counts.
Subsequently, the High Court sitting in Abuja froze all the undeclared assets linked to him.
Also, Senator Ekweremadu allegedly connived with former Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, to withdraw a whopping N7.75 billion of public funds in four years purportedly for the sham constitutional review of the 1999 Constitution. The report of the Constitutional Review Committee is still gathering dust. The National Assembly described this act as an “unprecedented naira bazaar”.
How was this humongous amount spent or laundered? Investigation later revealed that the duo may have taken advantage of the ‘soft system’ of the oil-rich emirate to launder the funds under the guise of investing in real estate in the country’s economy.
All the evidence unmistakably points to the fact that public funds were primarily used to purchase these exotic flats by the Senator.
