Adedayo Adeola Akintoye, a judge in the criminal division of Lagos State High Court, has procured a luxury apartment worth millions of dollars inside the world-famous Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Records obtained from Peoples Gazette showed, even though she earns roughly $1,700 (Approx. N660,000) per month in salaries and allowances.
Mrs. Akintoye, aged 63, a familiar personality across Lagos judiciary, secured the deluxe three-bed apartment on the 64th Floor of the Khalifa Tower — widely known as the tallest building in the world and one of the most expensive real estates around.
Records of the property obtained by the Gazette’s reporters showed that Mrs. Akintoye purchased the property using her Nigerian passport number A028149** with an expiry date between march 17, 2011, and March 16, 2016. Her date of birth of January 31, 1958, was also on file as the sole owner of the posh apartment.
A comparative worth of similar properties in the same Burj Khalifa building costs 11,984,888 United Arab Emirates Dirham or $3.2 million or N1.2 billion.
Mrs. Akintoye’s discreet ownership of accommodation inside the Burj Khalifa, an ultra-luxury skyscraper overlooking the priciest section of Dubai, reflects a meshing of civil service and luxury lifestyles now increasingly seen amongst government officials in Nigeria despite the government’s supposed stance against corruption.
Blantant Denial
Reached by People’s Gazette for clarification on how a serving high court judge could afford a luxury apartment at the Burj Khalifa, Mrs. Akintoye’s husband swiftly assumed the role of her spokesperson.
“Mrs. Akintoye is not the owner of a property in Dubai but a joint owner with me,” Mr. Akindele Akintoye said. “I bought the property in our joint names and the records in Dubai will confirm this.”
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When reminded that his name could not be found anywhere on the record as a co-owner of the property, including records of Emaar Properties, which owns Burj Khalifa, Mr. Akintoye said: “It may interest you to know that the property was bought by us before Mrs. Akintoye became a judge.”
The Gazette’s findings, however, showed that Mrs. Akintoye, a former registrar of lands in Lagos was a magistrate before former Governor Tunde Fashola elevated her to Lagos State High Court in 2014.
Details of her passport attached to records of her Burj Khalifa apartment, which was dated between 2011 and 2016, invariably prove that the property was acquired either while she was a magistrate or after becoming a senior judge.
When told that it was in the public interest to understand how a magistrate or a judge was able to acquire a property worth millions of dollars, Mr. Akintoye backtracked on his previous admittance, saying this time that the property wasn’t inside Burj Khalifa.
“We own a property elsewhere,” Mr. Akintoye, a lawyer, said without elaborating on where the property he claimed he bought together with his wife was located in Dubai.
He also repeatedly declined comments on how much was paid for the apartment, insisting that “the property does not cost many dollars.”
But a comparative worth of similar properties within the same Burj Khalifa building costs 11,984,888 United Arab Emirates Dirham ($3.2 million), according to foremost UAE real estate provider Property Finder.
The official remuneration packages of state high court judges (official salary and allowances) are detailed below:
Annual basic salary — N1,804,740
Vehicle maintenance/fuel — N1,353,555
Personal assistant — N451,185
Hardship — N902,370
Domestic Staff — N1,353,555
Entertainment — N812,133
Utilities — N541,422
Outfit — N451,185
Newspaper — N270,711.
This leaves an annual total of N7,940,856, to be paid as N661,738 per month. From Mrs. Akintoye’s yearly wages, it will take her 156 years to purchase her Burj Khalifa luxury apartment.
Source: Mcebiscoo.com
