I Acquired Properties Abroad, But Not With Public Funds – Festus Keyamo

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo SAN, has opened up on a property he was said to have acquired in the United States of America, saying he did not buy the house with stolen funds.

The Minister was dragged on social media after he appeared before a building worth over $300,000 in the US.

While confirming that the property belongs to him, Keyamo said he acquired it with money he made from legal practice.

Keyamo said on Twitter that he had decided to bait the horde of those he called sore losers at the last elections with a video of his vacation in “one of my properties abroad” as he did a light workout.

Expectedly, he said they fell so terribly for the bait, saying they seem to view everyone from their depraved universe and assuming everyone will wallow in the same moral squalor as them.

Giving an account of how he bought the property, Keyamo said he had, on March 6, 2019, written to the relevant government agencies, informing them of the closure of his foreign account(s) and the repatriation of the funds to the country, “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,” he said.

The Minister said he laughed when he saw the trending issues regarding “just one of my properties in the US.”

He described as very laughable the fact that some think that he could not afford such a property after his 30 years of active, high-profile practice of law.

He said some people seemed to underrate him because he had chosen to live a simple and modest life and not given to the ostentatious display of wealth.

He said the building is “about the cheapest of my several properties.”

Keyamo added that his flourishing and manned law chambers and his real estate investments are still far more financially profitable than serving Nigeria, saying, “ours is a labour of love to my country.”

He boasted that “Some of us don’t need Government funds or patronage to get by.”