Lender buys Nigerian mogul’s oceanfront Manalapan estate

A lender pursuing foreclosure on a Nigerian oil mogul’s oceanfront Manalapan spec estate bought the incomplete megamansion for $21.5 million.

Records show Edward London’s London Financial South Ocean LLC, a Florida entity, bought the estate at 1460 South Ocean Boulevard from an entity named after the address and managed by Onajite Okoloko. 

Okoloko is chairman of both Midwestern Oil & Gas and Eroton Exploration & Production, and heads fertilizer firm Notore Chemical Industries, all based in Nigeria. He also co-founded Ocean and Oil Holdings, another Nigerian oil company. 

London is a lender based in Key Biscayne and the mortgage holder for the megamansion Okoloko was building on the Manalapan property. Records show London Financial filed a foreclosure case in October against Okoloko, Okoloko’s Florida entity and the contractor building the home, Coastal Homes of South Florida, led by Chairman and CEO Tom Murphy. Coastal was later dropped from the suit, on Dec. 19.

London, the firm, alleged it was owed $20.8 million as of Oct. 6, court documents show. The case was set on an expedited track last month, with the court ordering it be resolved within eight months of the filing. 

Okoloko wasn’t building his dream home. The Nigerian magnate had planned a 25,600-square-foot spec mansion with six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, three half-bathrooms and a tennis court at the ocean-to-lake 1.5-acre estate. 

Pascal Liguori of Premier Estate Properties has the listing, which first hit the market in 2020 for $80 million. Okoloko upped the asking price to $87.5 million in November, Realtor.com shows. 

Records show construction on the property started in 2018, paused in 2020, and restarted this March. 

Aside from the foreclosure suit and stop-and-start construction of the estate, Okoloko has some other money troubles. His wife, Salma Alli Okoloko, filed for divorce in 2021 and the proceedings are ongoing, court records show. 

He reportedly owes Alli Okloko $37 million, according to the Nigerian outlet Sahara Reports.

Both the divorce and the megamansion remain in limbo. It is unclear whether London will proceed with construction of the property, as the lender is also suing the builder. 

Manalapan, just south of Palm Beach, is home to a stretch of ocean-to-lake estates that regularly trade for millions. Last year, billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison set a Florida state price record when he bought a 16-acre compound for $173 million. 

Other recent sales have been (slightly) less pricey. In January, health care CEO Rama Raju Mantena bought an oceanfront mansion for $48.4 million. In April, an unknown buyer dropped $37 million on a house with 150 feet of waterfront on both the ocean and the Intracoastal. Health tech boss Jorey Chernett bought an ocean-to-lake teardown for $16.5 million in July.