Sierra Leone’s First Lady, Fatima Jabbe-Bio, has retained tenancy of a subsidised council flat in Southwark, south London, despite living in a presidential mansion in Freetown, the Sierra Leonean capital, and being linked to a substantial property portfolio in West Africa.
The two-bedroom property, in one of London’s most deprived boroughs, has had the same tenant since December 2007, according to Southwark Council records. The average monthly council rent for a two-bedroom flat in the borough is about £560 (€660), roughly a third of local market rates.
Electoral registers show Jabbe-Bio registered to vote there as early as 2009, with her daughter also listed in 2023. A company was also registered to the address in 2008. Neighbours and visitors have reported post addressed to the presidential couple at the block.
Council homes in the UK are a form of social housing provided at below-market rents to those meeting eligibility criteria, typically based on low income or need. Southwark has more than 18,000 households on its waiting list, including over 4,000 in temporary accommodation, while London as a whole had over 336,000 in 2024, the highest figure in more than a decade.
Jabbe-Bio, a former actress and model, moved to the UK as an asylum seeker in the late 1990s after reportedly escaping an arranged child marriage in Sierra Leone amid the civil war.
She lived in the Southwark flat with her children before marrying Julius Maada Bio, whom she met in London around 2012 while he was fundraising for his first presidential bid. He became president in 2018 and was re-elected in 2023.
In a BBC interview, part of the Global Women series, she defended keeping the tenancy, stating, “My children are all British citizens. I’m paying for my council house myself. I have not committed any crime.” She noted that her children continue to live there.
Southwark Council said in response to media queries that it does not comment on individual cases but carries out checks where there is doubt about compliance with tenancy rules, which generally require the property to be the tenant’s main or sole residence.
Investigative reporting by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and others has highlighted the African assets of the presidential couple, though Jabbe-Bio has declined to confirm or deny details when questioned.
Sale records and other documents obtained by OCCRP show that between May 2022 and February 2024, Jabbe-Bio acquired two villas, an apartment building and a flat in the Gambia. Her mother is also listed as the owner of a luxury villa that was purchased for $500,000 (€460,000) during that period, while Jabbe-Bio’s two half-brothers also saw their real estate portfolio grow, including with a large hotel development.
When he gained power, Bio promised to make the fight against corruption one of his top priorities.
Earlier, Jabbe-Bio also shared a video on social media with Dutch drug lord Jos Leijdekkers present at a family party. He is the most wanted criminal in the Netherlands for cocaine smuggling and is hiding in Sierra Leone. He is reportedly married to the daughter of the presidential couple, said by OCCRP and Dutch media to be a Sierra Leonean diplomat.
Leijdekkers has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for a series of drug shipments and for ordering a hit that was never carried out. He must also pay €96 million to the Dutch State in respect of his profits from the cocaine trade. In Belgium, he was also sentenced to a total of 50 years in prison in a series of high-profile trials.
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