The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has released fresh documents detailing the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s encounter with American authorities over alleged drug trafficking and money laundering.
According to Peoples Gazette, the 56-page document released by the district court’s headquarters in Chicago did not include crucial new details, but it further confirmed snippets of the matter that had been shared spontaneously by the media for years.
The latest certified copies of the court case, obtained on August 10, showed the former Lagos State governor and two others named K.O. Tinubu and Alhaji Mogati were involved in banking proceeds of illicit drugs and money laundering with Heritage Bank and Citibank. It was not immediately clear whether or not ‘Alhaji Mogati’ was a misspelling of Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, Tinubu’s foster mother, who passed on in 2013.
The U.S. government had in July 1993 sought forfeiture of proceeds of narcotics 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 Tinubu over the same case in Nigerian courts.
Kalu Kalu Agu, an Abuja-based lawyer with ties to opposition politics, has been among those seeking to hold Tinubu to account over the matter. He petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, to probe Tinubu’s involvement in the drug charges before the presidential elections in February.
In the November 8 petition, Kalu Agu gave both offices seven days to launch action against Tinubu or be compelled through a judicial order of mandamus, a process that involves ordering a public department to perform a public duty.
“It is our view that you have a historic duty to ensure that Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu is called to account for his deeds in money laundering arising from his involvement in narcotics trafficking,” MKalu Agu said from his think-tank Centre for Reform & Public Accountability in Abuja.
The aforementioned publication reported that Tinubu did not return a request seeking comments about the released court documents and Kalu Agu’s petition to federal authorities. A spokesman for his campaign also declined comments.
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