Nigerian elites siphoned millions from govt, bought US properties: study

• The report's findings thrust graft back into the spotlight months before January's presidential election which economic hardships and growing insecurity will define.

Dozens of Nigerian political elites siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from government purse over three decades and laundered it through buying 284 properties in the United States, an investigative NGO report has established.

Corruption is endemic in Nigeria, one of Africa's largest economies and its top oil producer.

The report's findings thrust graft back into the spotlight months before January's presidential election which economic hardships and growing insecurity will define.

Since coming to office in 2023, President Bola Tinubu, who will seek re-election, declared war on graft, but high-profile corruption trials grind slowly through the courts.

In the report published Tuesday, the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF) lists "284 United States properties" collectively worth around $271 million and "linked to 61 current and former high-level Nigerian officials".

The investigation which examined properties acquired since the end of military rule in 1999, also claimed that the war against jihadists continues to enrich the "military elites".

More than half of the properties were bought by the officials during tenure: "at precisely the moment when their access to state resources and influence was greatest".

The report examined 61 individuals with 39 of them already "publicly accused, indicted, or sentenced for corruption", said the non-profit organisation which specialises in protecting whistleblowers in Africa.

- 'Tip of the iceberg' -

Most of the properties were bought without mortgage financing raising "red flags for money laundering" but international cooperation that should enable seizure of such assets "remains limited", said PPLAAF.

Nigeria is Washington's second-largest African trading partner, after South Africa, and Nigerians in the United States form the largest African diaspora.

Among the officials PPLAAF identified were lawmakers and officials from state governments and security agencies.

The largest number of properties were found to have been bought by officials from the security sector.

"The scale of defence and security spending has created continued opportunities for opaque contracting," it said.

"The fight against Boko Haram has...generated enormous security and defence expenditures, creating opportunities for opaque procurement practices".

The report names several senior officials already facing charges, including one accused of buying around 20 US properties.

"The properties identified in this report are just the tip of the iceberg and represent more than financial wrongdoing. They represent schools not built, hospitals not staffed, and a power grid that cannot keep the lights on -– the daily, material cost of corruption borne for decades by ordinary Nigerians".

Nether the country's ani-graft agency EFCC nor the presidential spokesmen responded to AFP's requests for comment.

The report "Dirty Deeds: How Top Nigerian Officials Bought a Piece of America", showed that the "US has emerged as an attractive destination for Nigerian real estate investments linked" to politically-exposed persons, it said.