Late Alhaji Ahmed Mai Deribe was a citizen of Borno state. He was born into the Deribe family in 1924 and died in 2002 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Before his death, Alhaji Mai Deribe was arguably one of the richest Nigerian men in the 80s. He built a house made from a mixture of liquid gold and owned a customized Gulfstream G550 private jet.
His building, Deribe Palace (Gidan Deribe) caught the world’s attention and has hosted some powerful world leaders like Prince Charles and his late wife, Princess Diana, and most notably, former U.S President George Washington Bush.
The main entrance of the building is bulletproof and the house construction took everyday nonstop work for 10 years to complete. And also, It is said that the late rich man spent $100m on the building, while the cleaning gulped as much as $5m per month.
An Italian company called ‘Giovanni Monzio Compagnoni’ manufactured the house’s furniture and utensils. Alhaji Deribe lived in the house for only 12 years before he died.