Nigerian Senator’s Wife In Money Laundering Mess As UK Court Orders Forfeiture Of House

The High Court of Justice in the United Kingdom has ordered the forfeiture of a luxury property occupied by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Abigail Katung.

Justice Jay of the King’s Bench Division ruled on June 6 that the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) should take possession of the property under the UK’s Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA), declaring it as “recoverable property” tied to suspicious financial activities.

The contested property was previously owned by Mansoor Hussain, a businessman accused of laundering money for organised criminal gangs in Northern England.

Mrs Katung, wife of Nigerian senator Sunday Katung, signed a Contract of Sale for the £1 million property in 2015—the same year her husband was first elected into Nigeria’s House of Representatives. She paid a £400,000 deposit in two tranches to Hussain’s bank account.

However, court filings revealed that the origin of £360,000—transferred from Nigeria—raised serious red flags. Mrs Katung admitted in court that she used Nigeria’s black market due to foreign exchange restrictions under the 2015 Buhari administration. She said part of the funds came from her husband’s N120 million bank loan.

Premium Times reports that she claimed the money was converted and remitted to the UK through a Bureau de Change (BDC), then paid into an account belonging to her company, 1st Resource.

The court, however, found Mrs Katung’s documentation grossly insufficient and described her explanations as inconsistent.

“She has failed to do that,” the judge said, referring to her failure to provide clear, documented evidence of the transaction’s legality.

“Mrs Katung’s witness statements in these proceedings did not address how the payments were made… there is no witness statement from her husband. These are telling omissions from which I draw an adverse inference,” he added.

Her attempt to validate the transaction with a letter from a company named My Honey Oil Interbiz Ltd was also rejected. The judge cited Central Bank of Nigeria records that did not list the company as a licensed BDC.

The judge ruled that the transaction was an attempt to circumvent Nigeria’s forex rules.

“Mrs Katung was only conducting a business in foreign exchange transactions to circumvent Nigerian foreign exchange regulations and/or to avoid a punitive exchange rate,” he stated.

With that, the court ruled that Mrs Katung’s £400,000 deposit would not be credited or refunded, as the money is also considered recoverable under POCA.

“And that no credit falls to be given for the value of the deposit payments made by Mrs Katung,” the ruling stated.

Mrs Katung’s lawyer conceded that the funds in question fall within the purview of the POCA regime.

Despite the ruling, Justice Jay clarified that Mrs Katung was not found to have knowingly engaged with criminal elements.

“I do not find that she was cognisant of what Mr Hussain was up to,” the judge said, in a move seen as protecting her from reputational damage.

The NCA is now entitled to possess the property and seek additional financial remedies if necessary. The judge directed both parties to draw up a final order, with the agency also awarded full legal costs.

According to Premium Times, Mrs Katung, who hails from Zaria, Kaduna State, moved to the UK in 2000 to study at the University of Leeds. She was elected the 130th Lord Mayor of Leeds in 2024, becoming the first Black African to hold the office.

“Since arriving in Leeds in 2000, the city quickly became my cherished second home,” she said at her inauguration last year.

Her husband, Sunday Katung, is currently a serving senator representing Kaduna South Senatorial District.