Tinubu disputes claims that he owns Oriental Hotels and other assets “linked” to him
There have been rumors that Mr. Tinubu is the owner of the Oriental Hotel and other assets in Lagos’ Lekki area.
The majority of the buildings including the Oriental Hotels, Civic Center, and other properties in Lagos related to the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Bola Tinubu are not his, he has admitted.
In a documentary about his accomplishments as governor of Lagos State, Mr. Tinubu said that he only created the conditions for investors to make investments in the Lekki Corridor.
The former governor said in an excerpt that was shared on Twitter by Jubril Gawat, a media assistant to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, that the entire Lekki Corridor was a garbage pit that required months to clean up.
TINUBU UNVEILED – Brief Documentary of the Life, Journey and Achievements of the APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu @officialABAT
The Pathfinder of the New Lagos ♾
13/#TinubuUnveiled #BAT2023 #BATKSM2023 pic.twitter.com/yyxwG7y1J9
— Jubril A. Gawat (@Mr_JAGs) September 4, 2022
Oriental Hotels
There have been rumors regarding who owns the Oriental Hotel, which is situated on the well-known Ozumba Mbadiwe road.
Hoodlums attacked the hotel in the wake of the Lekki shooting in 2020, claiming that Mr. Tinubu owned the property.
The incident caused the Western Metal Product Company, the building’s owners, to make a statement regarding the hotel’s ownership.
The WEMCO organization owns all of the hotels’ shares, according to Taiwo Ali, the Executive Director of WEMCO.
In the midst of the 2020 ENDSARS violence, a number of Mr. Tinubu-affiliated media establishments were set on fire. They are Max Radio, Television Continental, and The Nation newspaper.
None of those properties are mine. – Bola Tinubu discuss
Speaking in the video, Mr. Tinubu, who served as governor from 1999 to 2007, claimed that while he does not personally own the Oriental Hotel or any other properties connected to him, his administration spent money cleaning up the area around the hotel and civic center where the dumps were.
“I have converted a liability confronting Lagos to an asset of great value. Along Ozumba Mbadiwe, we used to pick dead bodies. People have forgotten truck pushers in those areas. You have the dirties coastline along Ozumba Mbadiwe all through Lekki corridor.
“I brought private investors, hospitality— they created the boat club, the Civic Center that is of great value to many people today—that was a refuse dump. Nobody would easily remember that Oriental Hotel was a refuse dump— a mile of refuse along that corridor. It took several months of escalating and a great investment for those investors to take the risk. Majority of those assets they claim are mine are not mine.
“I created an economic and recovery path for Lagos. There is no state that can brag of the exponential development that is going on in the Lekki Corridor,” Tinubu said.
