Drug Allegation Against Me Is As Dead As Dodo – Tinubu

The official US court judgment records, which have been circulating online since Tuesday, reveal that a US District Court accused the former governor of Lagos State for money laundering and narcotics trafficking.

Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APCpresidential )’s candidate, has responded to the certified judgment records made public by the Chicago, Illinois, US court where he was charged with cocaine trafficking and money laundering in 1993.
The official US court judgment records, which have been circulating online since Tuesday, reveal that a US District Court accused the former governor of Lagos State for money laundering and narcotics trafficking.

According to the official court records, Tinubu was a drug kingpin who, in 1993, instead of going to trial, voluntarily chose to transfer his assets to American authorities as part of a plea deal.

The APC presidential campaign’s spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, responded to the papers’ dissemination on Wednesday by calling them a “campaign of calumny” and declaring that “The Muckrakers are back in business.”

Onanuga posted, “The Muckrakers back in business,” on his Facebook page.

On Tuesday, the Tinubu detractors resumed their regular campaign of slander, this time unearthing the remains of a drug accusation in America that had been buried in 1993.

“Long after the campaign failed in 2003, it resurfaced weeks to the primary election of the All Progressives Congress. The opponents thought it was lethal enough to make the APC disqualify Tinubu from the race.

“It failed spectacularly and Tinubu went on to win the primary with a landslide. The muckrakers are back again with the same story, dressed as ‘certified true copy’ from the U.S. Court.

“The campaign’s media and publicity director, Bayo Onanuga had perused the new document and dismissed it as the same old tale. It is as dead as a dodo”, Onanuga told a news medium on Tuesday and made reference to a section of the campaign’s FAQ’s manual.

“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 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,”

“Almost thirty years after the allegation was discharged and the case declared dead, Tinubu’s opponents keep waking up its corpse, in futile efforts to malign him.”