The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the 2023 polls, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has reacted to some trending documents allegedly tying him to crime and corruption in the United States of America.
Tinubu reacted to the document through his spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, in an interview he granted on Tuesday.
The documents, said to have indicted Tinubu on drug dealings and money laundering in the United States, resurfaced with reports that they were just released by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The trending documents revealed details about Tinubu’s alleged indictment in drug deals and receipt of illegal money while in the US.
The 56-page document, claimed to have been released by the District Court’s headquarters, was said by those who circulated it to have confirmed the long held view that Tinubu faced conviction on narcotics charges in the US, especially with the revelation that he forfeited up to $460,000 to the authorities in 1993.
Reacting, Onanuga blamed the media for recycling the news even when it contains nothing new.
Onanuga said during an interview on Tuesday: “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.”
The Eagle Online learnt that Tinubu, who was resident in the US when these offences were allegedly committed, was never convicted for any offence known publicly by the US Government.
He returned to Nigeria and made his way into the upper political class in Nigeria to emerge as Lagos State Governor in 1999 to 2007.
The US never tried to extradite him either.
In the 70-year-old’s alleged drug dealing and money laundering case in Chicago, USA, it was alleged that the presidential hopeful accepted a plea bargain, in which he voluntarily agreed to forfeit his assets to American authorities in 1993, rather than go to trial.
It was further publicised by various African media, in February 2003, that Tinubu had been cleared of all charges, quoting a statement by the US authorities.
Also, a former presidential aspirant and stalwart of the APC, Adamu Garba, has said a drug trafficking case involving Tinubu “no longer stands”.
Garba criticised the opposition Peoples Democratic Party for allegedly being behind the re-circulation of a US court’s indictment of Tinubu for drug trafficking.
