Sierra Leone's First Lady is finally evicted from London council flat

Sierra Leone's First Lady has finally been evicted from her council flat in London.

Fatima Jabbe-Bio had been caught retaining the tenancy of a taxpayer-subsidised flat in Southwark - even as she lived in the lavish presidential lodge in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown.

This violated housing rules which stipulated a council property must be a person's principal residence, resulting in a 12-month investigation from the council's housing team.

She lived in the two-bed flat for more than a decade, but left in 2018 when she moved to Sierra Leone after her husband, Julius Maada Bio, was elected president.

Southwark Council has now taken possession of the property and it will be allocated to a family genuinely in need.

Reginald Popoola, Southwark’s executive member for council homes, said: "I look forward to bringing this council property back to its original purpose which is to provide a safe and secure home for people with legitimate housing needs on the council’s waiting list."

After The Times revealed her council flat tenancy last month, Reform UK Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said his party would "boot her out" and give the council flat to a homeless veteran.

"Our people must come first. Always," he added.

And Neil Coyle, the Labour MP for Bermondsey & Old Southwark, said her council flat was an "abuse of the system", adding that it was a "travesty and must be tackled".

In an interview with the BBC last month, she defended her need for social housing.

She said: "My children are all British citizens. I’m paying for my council house myself. I have not committed any crime."

Mrs Jabbe-Bio is understood to have visited the Southwark flat only occasionally and letters addressed to the First Lady were outside her front door.

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But her daughter Tigda Soley had been registered to vote at the address in 2023.

Mrs Jabbe-Bio, 45, was born in Sierra Leone and came to London to pursue a career in modelling and acting, appearing in a series of low-budget Nigerian films.

In 2012, she met Mr Maada Bio in London at a fundraiser for his first presidential run, and were married a year later.

A report, published last year by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, alleged the First Lady owned a property portfolio which included two villas in the Gambia, a flat in a luxury estate and an entire apartment building.

She was set to speak at a conference at Cambridge University this week, but the speech was cancelled after it emerged she had repeatedly refused to condemn female genital mutilation (FGM).

In 2019, she said she had never seen any proof of harm caused by FGM, and claimed no one had given her any statistics on the subject.

She also previously attracted criticism over a program called "Hands Off Our Goals", which condemns rape and child marriage, but not FGM.

During her husband's presidency, she has received invitations to speak at prominent universities and international forums, including Harvard and the United Nations General Assembly.