The All Progressives Congress has provided further information about the events 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 charge.
Tinubu, who was proclaimed the victor 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.
Obi had contested Tinubu’s election victory statement, claiming, among other things, that the APC candidate was not entitled to run in the first place.
He said Tinubu’s loss of cash to the US government over a drug trafficking charge demonstrated that he had committed transgressions serious enough to preclude him from running for office.
Nevertheless, the party denied Obi’s assertion that Tinubu was convicted by the US as a consequence of the forfeiture in procedures filed by a team of its attorneys led by Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to defend its candidate in the Presidential Election Petitions Court.
The APC notified the Presidential Election Petition Court, which was sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, that monies in the aforementioned accounts, which were held by two commercial banks, were subject to a “civil forfeiture process” in Case No: 93C4483.
The party claimed that the alleged judgment of the United States District Court Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division in the aforementioned case was not a fine but an order of forfeiture of $460,000 to the US pursuant to the settlement of the parties’ claim.
“The abovementioned verdict is not against the 2nd Respondent (Tinubu), but against the monies in the different accounts created in the name of Bola Tinubu with First Heritage Bank and City Bank N.A.,” the party claims.
“The compromise terms that resulted in 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 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 enquired about Tinubu’s criminal record as early as 2003, through the US Embassy in Nigeria, and the answer was negative.
‘In response to your letter of February 3, 2003, with reference number SR.3000 /IGP SEC/ABJ/VOL. 24/287, a records check of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) National Crime Information Center (NCIC) was performed.
‘The checks turned up no criminal arrest records, wants, or warrants for Bola Ahmed Tinubu’ (DOB 29 March. 1952). For your department’s knowledge, NCIC is a centralized information center that keeps records of every arrest and conviction in the United States and its territories.’
