Sierra Leone Telegraph: 11 May 2025:
With millions of poor British families struggling to obtain social housing, the wife of President Bio of Sierra Leone is a tenant of a two-bedroom council flat in Southwark, one of the most deprived boroughs in London, UK, according to British Newspapers and GB television reports.
The multi-millionaire dollar Bio family are extremely wealthy, with a large portfolio of luxurious properties dotted across West Africa – especially in The Gambia (ancestral home of Fatima Bio), Senegal, Burkina Fasso, and Ghana, worth tens of millions of dollars.
Although the Bio family do not ordinarily reside at their council rented property in London (since Maada Bio became president of Sierra Leone in 2028), it is understood that they are earning rental income from the property, at the expense of poor, homeless British families, many of whom are having to sleep rough or bed surfing due to huge shortage of social housing in the UK.
The waiting list for London’s social housing is reported to be at its longest in a decade: 336,366 eligible households in April last year, with London accounting for one in four households waiting for social housing in England.
The average waiting time for a three-bedroom council home in the borough of Southwark in London is reported to be over five years; and more than 18,000 households are on the borough’s waiting list, including more than 4,000 in temporary accommodation.
According to British Newspaper reports, records show that Fatima Bio who many in Sierra Leone believe to be one of the most corrupt politicians in the country, has been the registered tenant of the two-bedroom council flat in Southwark since 2007.
By sub-letting the property to another tenant without the knowledge and permission of the Council, it is reported that Fatima Bio is in breach of her London council housing tenancy agreement.
But more importantly, questions are being asked by Sierra Leoneans on social media as to whether the income illegally derived from this council property in London, has been declared to the Sierra Leone National Revenue Authority (NRA) as well as the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) as part of her Asset Declaration requirement.
According to the Times Newspaper – the average monthly council rent for a two-bedroom flat in Southwark is about £560, less than a third of today’s average market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Southwark, which stood at £2,232 as of March.
Based on these monthly rental charges, it is estimated that Fatima Bio would have unlawfully earned over £60,000 in rental income from the London Council property in the last ten years, which remain undeclared to the authorities in Sierra Leone.
The First Lady – as Fatima Bio is popularly referred to in Siera Leone, is in receipt of millions of dollars annually from the Sierra Leone public purse, in support of the Office of the First Lady to carry out her public duties as wife of the president.
However, it is alleged that most of the cash received by the Offices of the First Lady and the President respectively, are never accounted for, whiles the Anti- Corruption Commission cover up the massive corruption that is impoverishing one of the world’s poorest nations.
The country’s Auditor General – Lara Taylor-Pearce, has been sacked from her job after publishing a damning report which shows massive corruption in both the Office of the President and Office of the First Lady.
According to British Newspapers’ reports, letters addressed to the President and his wife, are left outside the front door of their rented London Council property by the postman, posing serious risks to the Sierra Leone’s Presidency and the State of Sierra Leone itself, a reckless behaviour which in a properly run democracy could have led to the impeachment of President Bio.
Sadly, for the poor people of Sierra Leone this latest scandal comes after President Bio is being accused of harbouring one of the most dangerous and wanted drug barons in Europe, the Dutch international cocaine dealer – Jos Leijdekkers, who is said to be President Bio’s son-in-law – husband of President Bio’s daughter.
A report published yesterday by Europe’s Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, citing property records, alleges that the first lady owns two villas in the Gambia, a flat in a luxury estate and an entire apartment building.
Writing on social media in response to the allegations about her property portfolio, this is what Fatima Bio said, also in reference to the threat of legal action made to her by the diamond mining company Koidu Mining Limited:
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