November 10, 2022

The Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu was roped in the drug trafficking case of two Nigerians who once stayed in separate flats in the same building where the ex-governor stayed at a time in the US, Chief Spokesperson for the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo said on Wednesday.

“He, Asiwaju, went to open an account, the address by which he opened the account was already used by these people…investigated for narcotics,” Keyamo explained further.

Keyamo’s submission on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme is coming following the controversy surrounding a document recently released by the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said to have investigated Tinubu’s alleged involvement in narcotics and money laundering about 30 years ago.

The matter, which ended in a settlement, led to Tinubu’s forfeiture of $460,000 in one of the accounts linked to the former governor of Lagos State.

“Although 10 accounts were linked to Tinubu by United States authorities in the early 90s, $460,000 was deducted from one of the accounts as tax on investments domiciled in US banks”, Keyamo added.

‘Not A Deliberate Act’
Keyamo further stated that Tinubu was an employee of Mobil Oil and not a treasurer of a drug cartel.

He said Tinubu took responsibility for all the 10 accounts because they were also traced to his mother and “relatives”, explaining that Tinubu deposited some funds in bank accounts in the US as investments and got returns on those investments.

The spokesman said the banks were supposed to deduct taxes from the investments but they did not and this was not a “deliberate act” on the part of Tinubu.

“The deposits he made there (in banks) are what bankers called investments; he kept the money there and he was getting interests. They (US government) said he had not paid tax on those interests. That is all and guess what? The banks are supposed to deduct the tax from source.

“Out of the 10 accounts, it was only one account – the one in Heritage Bank – that they took $460,000 as tax on interest that he benefited on the investment he made in those accounts.

“In fact, all the money in Heritage Bank was not taken; they took only $460,000 as tax,” said Keyamo, who is also the Minister of State, Labour and Employment.