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A British lawmaker has urged a South London council to investigate the tenancy of the first lady of Sierra Leone after she publicly admitted she is holding onto a taxpayer-subsidized apartment designed for the city’s most vulnerable residents.
To the thousands of low-income families languishing on a waitlist for subsidized housing in South London, a two-bedroom apartment in the borough of Southwark is a lifeline. But to Fatima Bio, the wife of Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio, it is a property she has held onto – even as she moved into a presidential palace and acquired luxury real estate in West Africa, as an OCCRP investigation revealed last year.
Council homes in the United Kingdom are specifically designed to provide below-market rents for individuals with limited housing options, where eligibility is typically conditioned by low income and limited savings.
Speaking to OCCRP, Member of Parliament for Bermondsey and Old Southwark Neil Coyle said that he had asked Southwark Council to investigate the use of the property by the first lady.
“There are rules about residency which appear to have been broken. If she is not living in the U.K. the property should be available for people living in Southwark,” he said, referencing council housing regulations that require tenants use the property as their primary residence.
“The waiting list for a home here is very high and no abuse should be tolerated. To know someone is living in opulence elsewhere whilst families wait for homes in London is a travesty and must be tackled,” he added.
The revelations about Bio’s use of council housing were first published jointly by OCCRP and The Times in May 2025 as part of OCCRP’s investigation into the first lady’s acquisitions of high-end properties in Gambia. In an interview with the BBC this week, Bio confirmed she continued to keep the apartment and that her children, who are British citizens, were residing there.
“I’m paying for my council house myself. I have not committed any crime,” said Bio, a former Nollywood actress who had moved to London in the early 2000s. Working as a model and actress in the city’s African diaspora cultural scene, she moved to the Southwark flat in 2007, before relocating to Sierra Leone when her husband assumed the presidency in 2018.
The U.K. is currently grappling with a severe shortage of social housing. In Southwark alone, more than 18,000 households remain on a waiting list for accommodation, with thousands currently living in temporary housing.
On Thursday a neighbor living in Southwark told OCCRP that the flat does not appear to have full-time residents, with mail regularly piling up, as reporters observed during the visit of the property in February and July last year.
When confronted by the BBC about the additional portfolio of luxury properties in the West African country Gambia, which OCCRP’s investigation had revealed, Bio refused to directly confirm or deny ownership, telling the broadcaster: “I don’t have to deny it. I don’t have to acknowledge it.”
Drawing on sales records and other documents obtained by reporters, the investigation found that Bio, her mother, and two half-brothers had spent over $2.1 million on at least 10 real estate purchases, including luxury villas, beachfront apartments, and a four-storey apartment building.
Southwark Council has declined to comment directly on the First Lady's tenancy. However, the council indicated that it routinely investigates instances where there are concerns over whether a tenant is meeting their obligations, notably the requirement that the council flat serves as a primary residence.
Bio did not respond to OCCRP’s requests to comment.
