In what many Nigerians will see as controversial, Peter Obi, Presidential candidate of the Labour Party has revealed why he kept his wealth in tax haven abroad.
Obi also revealed that he can only pay tax in the country where he has businesses. He added that he has assets and investments in the UK and as such, can only pay tax there.
Obi made this known in an interview he granted Daily Trust Newspaper.
Peter Ob has revealed why he kept his wealth in tax havens abroad. Photo credit: Peter Obi Source: Twitter
Going further, Obi said there is no law that ask him not to keep the money he made before becoming governor anywhere.
He said:
“I am a very successful businessman. I have been a trader and I was successful. I have served in corporations, several boards and I can name them. I have also been a governor. In all these, I have operated as transparent and as efficiently as possible and I can explain and answer for whatever I am mentioned in.
“No, I was based in the UK. It was from the UK that I came to become governor of Anambra state. So when I was declared Governor of Anambra state, naturally I have assets, I have investments in the UK, what I needed to do was to put those assets and investments into a trust because the law says to me, you are no longer allowed by law to operate an account, you are no longer allowed to be employed to do any other job, to be employed by another company, so all these ceased. But the law didn’t say you can’t own what you own before.
“Yes, because by declaring the company that owns them here, it is like I declared that I am Mr Obi, so Mr Obi now has a branch, I don’t need to declare that branch because it is part of Mr Obi, so I declared the company in Nigeria that owned those assets, declared everything.
“Eventually after, this was about 2006, in 2021 of course there was the issue where my name was mentioned and I have said it consistently, go and check the investment there, if you see any investment from the time I became governor till date even till now, then hold me responsible.
He added that he can only pay tax where he has his investments.
“No, you cannot hide anything because they are investments that are there. The tax I am going to pay is in the jurisdiction where it is held.
“No, I am not earning any money from Nigeria, there is no investment in Nigeria, the investment is there, the taxes are paid there. So Nigeria is not involved in any way in it.
“No, not from beginning, the ones that come from Nigeria you pay tax in Nigeria. If I am doing business in the UK, I pay tax in the UK that is what the law says; you pay tax based on where you earn the income.”
