*Accuses election losers of ‘bad belle’
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN), has shrugged off the swirling allegation that he might have used public funds to buy a mansion in the United States of America (USA) for his personal use.
After posing in front of a US building with a $300,000 price tag, Keyamo received a barrage of criticisms on social media.
Nonetheless, Keyamo acknowledged ownership of the mansion, explaining that he bought the property with earnings from his work as a lawyer
Keyamo said on Twitter that he had made the decision to use a video of his vacation at “one of my properties abroad” as bait for the horde of people he dubbed disgruntled losers from the last elections.
He claimed that this was to be expected because they were so easily duped, noting that they have a perverse worldview and assume that everyone will share their moral depravity.
Giving an account of how he bought the property, Keyamo said he, on March 6, 2019, wrote to the relevant government agencies informing them of the closure of his foreign account(s) and the repatriation of the funds to Nigeria, “being some savings I had made as a private legal practitioner and a property investor over decades.”
Keyamo said the foreign funds were lying in his accounts until he was appointed minister in 2019.
“In 2021, I again wrote to the relevant agencies (by letters dated January 22, 2021), informing them of the movement of those funds out of the country to purchase a property as a better investment decision, instead of the funds lying idly in the account whilst I am in public office.
“So, I had a good laugh when I saw the trending issues regarding just one of my properties in the US. It is even very laughable to think that after active, high-profile practice of law culminating in my privilege as a member of the Inner Bar (together with being an International Arbitrator) and thoughtful investments in real estate spanning over 30 years, I cannot afford such a relatively modest property,” he stated.