Bola Tinubu drug case latest update.
The All Progressives Congress has provided more information about the circumstances that led to its presidential candidate and President-elect, Bola Tinubu, forfeiting $460,000 to the government of the United States of America in 1993 as a result of a drug trafficking allegation.
Tinubu, who was declared the winner of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission, received 8,794,726 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party’s Peter Obi in the February 25 presidential election.
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Obi had challenged Tinubu’s election victory announcement, claiming, among other things, that the APC candidate was not qualified to run in the first place.
He claimed Tinubu’s forfeiture of funds to the US government over a drug trafficking allegation demonstrated that he had committed infractions serious enough to disqualify him from running for office.
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However, the party refuted Obi’s claim that Tinubu was convicted by the US as a result of the forfeiture in processes filed by a team of its lawyers led by Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to defend its candidate at the Presidential Election Petitions Court.
The APC informed the Presidential Election Petition Court, which was sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, that funds in the aforementioned accounts, which were held by two commercial banks, were subject to a “civil forfeiture proceeding” in Case No: 93C4483.
The party averred that the purported decision of the United State District Court Northern District of Illinois, Eastern division in the said case, was not a fine but a decree of forfeiture of the amount of $460,000 to the US pursuant to the settlement of claim by the parties to the case.
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According to the party, “The said decision is not against the 2nd Respondent (Tinubu) but against the funds in the various account opened in the name of Bola Tinubu with First Heritage Bank and City Bank N.A.
“The compromise terms that led to the forfeiture were preceded by express admission on record that the 2nd Respondent (Tinubu) did not admit the commission of any drug, drug-related or illicit conduct of dishonesty or fraud that fits into any of the grounds of disqualification to contest for the office of president of Nigeria at the February 25, 2023 general election,” the APC told the court.
The party further told the court that the Federal Government had as far back as 2003, through the US Consulate in Nigeria, inquired about Tinubu’s criminal record and the result was negative.
‘In relation to your letter, dated February 3, 2003, reference number SR.3000 /IGP SEC/ABJ/VOL. 24/287, regarding Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a records check of the Federal Bureau of Investigation‘s (FBI) National Crime Information Center (NCIC) was conducted.
‘The results of the checks were negative for any criminal arrest records, wants, or warrants for Bola Ahmed Tinubu (DOB 29 March. 1952). For information of your department, NCIC is a centralized information center that maintains the records of every arrest and conviction within the United States and its territories.’
