Was Over 5 Billion Dollars And Gold Discovered in Former President Buhari’s New York Residence?
There has been a claim on X that over 5 billion Dollars in cash and gold worth about 700 million Dollars was discovered in the home of former president, Muhammadu Buhari in New York by the Federal Bureau of Intelligence, FBI.
The claim, accompanied by an image of a heap of stacked dollars with 5 bars of gold visibly placed on the table with a blurry picture of Nigeria’s ex-president, Muhammadu Buhari was posted on January 31, 2025, by the handle, @ubasinachimbia with the caption: “BREAKING NEWS: $5 Billion in cash and $700 Million in Gold found in Buhari’s New York residence as FBI raids property; Trump orders clampdown on Nigerian politicians homes. Trump has ordered the money to be placed on hold as he doesn’t trust the current president of 🇳🇬.”
As of the time this post was published, it had 179,000 views, about 650 comments, over 990 retweets and reposts, 1,600 likes and 201 bookmarks. The claim was also posted on Facebook here, here and here.
VERIFICATION
Google reverse image search shows that the mutilated image first appeared online on January 28, 2025. The image was first posted on Facebook by Amarachukwu Onyebuchi on January 28, 2025 at 10:13pm, it was posted with images of Buhari and Trump and had the same caption as other similar claims on the matter.
The blurry picture of Muhammadu Buhari and the 5 bars of gold suggests this image might be AI generated as an OSINT comprehensive search does not bring up a clue to the image.
On May 29, 2023, after handing over to Tinubu as president of Nigeria, Buhari returned to his home in Daura, Katsina state and has been residing there till date.
Recall that in a 2022 meeting with King Charles III, former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari stated that he does not own a house in the United Kingdom nor any other place outside Nigeria. Buhari told the monarch that the only properties he possesses are those he acquired before assuming office in 2015 and expressed a lack of interest in owning assets abroad.
In 2015, it was widely reported that Buhari declared his assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau before he assumed office. The assets declared by the erstwhile president included the following.
1. N30 million to his name. He also had only one bank account, with the Union Bank.
2. 5 homes, and two mud houses in Daura/
3. 2 undeveloped plots of land, one in Kano and the other in Port Harcourt.
4. Own Farms, an orchard and a ranch. The total number of his holdings in the farm
include 270 heads of cattle, 25 sheep, five horses, a variety of birds and a number of economic trees.
5. Uses a number of cars, two of which he bought from his savings and the others supplied
to him by the federal government in his capacity as former Head of State. The rest were
donated to him by well-wishers after his jeep was damaged in a Boko Haram bomb attack on his convoy in July 2014.
6. President Buhari “had shares in Berger Paints, Union Bank and Skye Bank.”
In 2019, Buhari’s media aide, Garba Shehu released a statement stating that since 2015 which was the last time his principal declared his assets he has not acquired any new house or shares in any bank.
“The forms, are signed by the President and sworn to before a Judge of Abuja High Court, showed no significant changes in assets as declared in 2015 by him. There are no new houses, no new bank accounts at home and abroad and there are no new shares acquired,” Shehu said.
Recently, Buhari also disclosed that he sustains himself through rental income from one of his houses in Kaduna State. Speaking at an All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus meeting in Katsina State in January 2025, Buhari emphasized that he did not amass wealth through corrupt means during his tenure. He stated, “After my eight years as a civil president, I have only three houses; one in Daura and two in Kaduna. I have given one out for renting where I get money for feeding.”
As of now, there is no publicly available information indicating that Buhari or his media aide, Garba Shehu has made any statement regarding claims of discovering money in Buhari’s alleged New York home. Also, a look through several public records did not reveal any properties purchased in Buhari’s name in New York.
Keyword searches like “Muhammadu Buhari’s house in New York”, “Does Muhammadu Buhari own a house in New York”, “where does Buhari stay when he visits New York” came out negative as there is no verifiable information indicating that former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari owns a personal residence in New York City.
Meanwhile, a large-scale seizure as alleged by the post would attract the attention of the mainstream media but this has not been reported on, at all. A thorough look into @ubasinachimbia’s X timeline revealed that the user is a top Biafra agitator who posts unverified claims to undermine the government of Nigeria and most African governments.
CONCLUSION
The claim that over 5 billion Dollars in cash and gold worth about 700 million Dollars was discovered in the home of former president, Muhammadu Buhari in New York by the FBI is not supported by any CREDIBLE EVIDENCE as there is no public record of Buhari owning an apartment or home in New York.
