Touted as certified true copy, documents purported to be certified true copies of alleged involvement of drug trafficking by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, again begin to make rounds on Tuesday.
This time, the document was aggressively shared by hordes of media aides of Atiku Abubakar, of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP who had have a bad week with six governors elected on the platform of his party giving indications that they may not support his 2023 ambition.
However, a careful perusal of the document will reveal that except for the purpose of deception, they are not different the ones that have been in circulation since 2002 about the purported drug allegation.
The same documents were circulated in 2003, and just before the APC primary, APC campaign’s media and publicity director, Bayo Onanuga said after perusing the purported new documents.
He dismissed the documents 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.
According to APC FAQ Campaign manual, the allegation is 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,” APC Campaign said.
The APC Campaign Organisation also said In 2003, the then Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun made an inquiry with the American Consulate on the drug allegation against Tinubu after his PDP in Lagos raised the issue, with the intention of using it to disqualify him from running for a second term.
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.
credit: PM News
