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| Bola Tinubu [Credit: BAT] |
Following the publication of court documents confirming ties to drug trafficking and money laundering in the United States, Festus Keyamo, chief spokesman for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council, claimed Bola Tinubu, the party's flag bearer, only shared a "block of flats" with drug barons.
“What happened was that Asiwaju (Bola Tinubu) went to open an account. The address which he used in opening the account was the address used by these people…(sic). I think some blocks of flats. Maybe, he was happy to be in that block of flats too.
“So, they now link it that the other people they were investigating for narcotics are in the same address used by Asiwaju to open that account,” Mr Keyamo said on Wednesday on Channels Television programme in a manner to exonerate the former Lagos governor from the fresh controversies that had been trailing his involvement in drug peddling.
A certified true copy of documents by the U.S. District Court was published by Peoples Gazette on Tuesday.
The documents confirmed that the U.S. government had in July 1993 sought forfeiture of proceeds of narcotics Mr Tinubu was accused of laundering. The matter was resolved in a compromise between the Tinubus and the U.S. authorities, with the Tinubus being asked to keep the money in the Heritage Bank account while the $460,000 in the Citibank account was forfeited.
A federal judge subsequently dismissed the matter with prejudice on September 21, 1993, which effectively foreclosed the matter from being litigated again by all parties. It, however, remained unclear whether or not Nigerian authorities could still bring charges against Mr Tinubu over the same case in Nigerian courts.
The former Lagos governor has come under intense public scrutiny over his opaque past, health status and allegations of corruption.