What is going on: Some documents said to have indicted the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, on drug dealings and money laundering in the United States resurfaced with reports that they were released by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The trending documents revealed details about Tinubu’s alleged indictment in drug deals and receipt of illegal money while in the U.S.
According to reports: The 56-page document released by the district court’s headquarters confirmed the long-held view that Tinubu faced conviction on narcotics charges in the US especially with the revelation that he forfeited up to $460,000 to the U.S. authorities in 1993.
Reacting to the released documents: Tinubu spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, blamed the media for “recycling the news even when it’s nothing new,” during an interview, Tuesday, November 09, 2022, evening.
Bayo said “it’s dead as dodo (roasted plantain) wondering why you journalists will continue to do the story.
“It resurfaced before the primary (presidential) and now again. It is nothing new. It’s dead. It’s as dead as a dodo,” he said.
What You should know: Tinubu who was resident in the US when these offences were committed was never publicly convicted by the US government for these allegations. He returned to Nigeria and made his way into the upper political class in Nigeria to emerge as Lagos State Governor in 1999 to 2007. The US never tried to extradite him either. (Recall Hushpuppi and Abba Kyari case).
Why Tinubu was not convicted: In the 70-year-old’s drug dealing and money laundering case in Chicago, USA, it is alleged that the presidential hopeful accepted a plea bargain, in which he voluntarily agreed to forfeit his assets to American authorities in 1993, rather than go to trial. It was further publicised by various African media, on February 2003 that BAT had been cleared of all charges, quoting a statement by the US authorities.
Another angle: A former presidential aspirant and stalwart of the APC, Adamu Garba, has said a drug trafficking case involving Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 elections, “no longer stands”. Garba criticised the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for allegedly being behind the ‘re-circulation’ of a U.S. court’s indictment of Tinubu for drug trafficking.
