Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu
By Our Reporter
A civil rights group, Center for Reform and Public Advocacy, has given a seven-day ultimatum to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, to arrest and prosecute the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu over alleged hard drug and money laundering related offences.
The letter requesting for Tinubu’s arrest and prosecution was signed by the Legal Adviser to the group, Mr Kalu Agu, and was served and received by NDLEA on Tuesday, November 8, 2022.
The grouse of the civil rights group against Tinubu was that the United States of America had filed criminal charges against the APC presidential candidate at the United States District Court in September 1993, in case number 93C4483, and that Tinubu was found guilty of money laundering and drug related offences.
Based on his indictment, Tinubu was said to have on October 4, 1993 forefeitted a sum of $460,000 dollars in his bank account number 263226700 domiciled at First Heritage Bank in the name of Bola Tinubu to the US government.
The group attached certified true copy of the US Court judgment to its letter of request for Tinubu’s arrest as evidence of the alleged offences and the conviction by the court.
The judgment was signed by Michael Shepard, a United States Attorney and Marsha McClellan, Assistant United States Attorney.
Also attached to the letter are the National Youth Service Corps NYSC bearing Tinubu Bola Adekunle and a Chicago State University in the name of Bola A. Tinubu to establish accuracy in the name.
While reacting to the development, Tinubu denied any wrongdoing and his spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, blamed the media for “recycling the news even when it’s nothing new,” While speaking with an online news medium, Onanuga 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. Onanuga also made reference to a section of the campaign’s FAQ’s manual.
It reads “One of the unconscionable and wicked lies peddled by political opponents about Bola Ahmed Tinubu was to paint him erroneously as a drug baron”
“The accusation arose out of an investigation by FBI agent Kevin Moss of Tinubu and Compass Investment and Finance accounts at First Heritage Bank and Citi- Bank in the U.S.
On January 10, 1992, Mr Kevin Moss requested and obtained a court order to freeze the accounts.
On January 13, 1992, Mr Moss telephoned Tinubu in Nigeria to justify the amounts in the accounts, running into $1.4 million. Part of the money was said to have been deposited by two Nigerians, being investigated for drug offences.
After the telephone conversation, Tinubu instructed his lawyer in the US to file a lawsuit against the order freezing his accounts.
This dragged on till 15 September 1993, when an agreement was reached for an out of court settlement. Judge John A Nordberg, of the US district court for the Northern District of Illinois, read out the agreement reached by the two parties. Part of the funds, $460,000 was seized by the government.
The FBI never charged Tinubu with any drug offence; the case did not go on trial. Tinubu was never convicted. And he was never barred from entering the United States”
“In 2003, ten years after, when the PDP opponents wanted to use the shuttered allegation to disqualify Tinubu from running for a second term in Lagos, the Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun made an enquiry with the American Consulate on Tinubu’s status.
The Consulate gave Tinubu a clean bill in a reply by the Legal Attache, Michael H. Bonner.
The letter read: “Our sincerest greetings to you and all of the law enforcement personnel in the Nigeria Police Force, whose continued assistance is very much appreciated. In relation to your letter, dated February 3, 2003, reference number SR. 3000/IGPSEC/ABJ/VOL. 24/287, regarding Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a records check of check of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) National Crime Information Centre (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 very centralised information centre that maintains the records of every criminal arrest and conviction within the United States and its territories.”
The fresh allegation especially the release of the complete documents to the public may further put pressure on Tinubu, who was Lagos State Governor for eight years to come clean on his alleged narcotic dealings and indictment for money laundering.
Although he was never convicted as he did not re-enter the US, the certified copies of the court case, which were released on August 10, revealed Tinubu and two others simply named as K.O. Tinubu and Alhaji Mogati were involved in banking proceeds of illicit drugs and money laundering with Heritage Bank and Citibank, all in the US.
The personality of who Alhaji Mogati remains shrouded as no trace could easily be made to such a person close to Tinubu except that Tinubu’s foster mother was known as Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji. She died in 2013.
Tinubu who was resident in the US when these offences were committed returned to Nigeria and made his way into the upper political class in Nigeria to emerge as Lagos State Governor in 1999 to 2007.
However, his refusal to return to the US when the court case was held reportedly led to huge forfeiture of $460,000 in the Citibank account in the US.
The US authority never applied to Nigeria for his extradition.
This newspaper gathered that since his accomplices in the US entered into a plea bargain to avoid a long drawn court case, the former Lagos West Senator also enjoyed that privilege as all assets and money were seized on September 21, 1993.
