Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has shed light on the acquisition of his property in the United States of America.
Keyamo recently faced social media backlash after he was seen in a video in front of a building worth over $300,000 in the US.
Responding to the criticisms, Keyamo confirmed that the property belongs to him and stated that he purchased it with money he made from legal practice, debunking claims that it was acquired with stolen funds.
He went on to say that he had decided to bait his critics with the video, and they fell for it.
“I decided to bait the horde of those I called sore losers at the last elections with a video of my vacation in ‘one of my properties abroad’ as I did a light workout. They fell so terribly for the bait, assuming everyone will wallow in the same moral squalor as them,” Keyamo said.
Keyamo explained that he wrote to relevant government agencies on March 6, 2019, 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.”
He 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 laughed when he saw the trending issues regarding “just one of my properties in the US.” He described as 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.
Keyamo said some people seem 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.”
