[s] SalamRushdie:
heavyweight in Nigerian politics. The two-time Governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the All Progressive Party can be said to have seen it all and done it all when it comes to politics in Nigeria.
In 1993, under the Ernest Shonekan’s Interim Government, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was still an upcoming political figure. He was mainly based in the United States and carried out most of his activities from there. It was also in that year that he was indicted for Cocaine, Heroin and Gun crimes which led to the forfeiture of an estimated amount of $460,000 and some $1,400,000 cash.
The details of the suit against him had it that he was identified as a bagman for two Nigerian Heroin movers who operated out of Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. They were Adegboyega Mueez Akande and Abiodun Agbele, Akande’s nephew, who was exposed to law enforcement after selling White Heroin first to Lee Andrew Edwards, another dealer later jailed for trying to murder a Federal Agent, and then to an undercover cop. An IRS Special Agent, Kevin Moss had brought the information that Akande had run the White Heroin ring in the late 1980s until 1990 when he handed off the United States arm of the business to his nephew, who had arrived in 1988.
Akande then returned to Nigeria but continued to oversee the operation from there with the help of others at home and in the United States, including his relatives. One of the individuals identified in his cartel by Moss was Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, then a Chicago State University-educated accountant working as a treasurer for Mobil Oil Nigeria Ltd, a subsidiary of energy giant Mobil Oil, which was still a few years shy of its famous merger with Exxon in 1999.
Bola Tinubu had given differing accounts for his wealth to Moss which had ultimately led to the money being seized by the prosecuting panel with the case.
Details of the suit read:
‘According to the Verified Complaint for forfeiture in case No. 93 C 4483 which was filed on July 26, 1993, before the Hon. Judge Nordberg of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the United States Government urged the Court to order the forfeiture of funds in accounts Nos. 263226700 held by First Heritage Bank in the name of Bola Tinubu, funds in accounts 39483134, 39483396, 4650279566, 00400220, 39936404 and 39936383 held by Citibank N.A in the name of Bola Tinubu and funds in accounts 52050-89451952,52050-89451952, 52050-89451953 held by Citibank in the name of Bola Tinubu because there was probable cause to believe that the funds in Tinubu’s bank accounts represented proceeds of narcotics trafficking or were monies involved in financial transactions in violations of 18 U.S.C, sections 1956 and 1957 and therefore, was forfeitable to the United States Government.’
However, in a bid to defend ownership of the funds, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu averred in Court that the funds belonged to himself, his wife, K.O Tinubu and his surrogate mother, Alhaja Mogaji and warranted that they had an exclusive right, title and interest to the funds.
Read more here :https://africadailynews.net/2020/09/19/how-tinubu-lost-all-his-money-in-u-s-because-of-drugvideo.html
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