Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN FCIArb) has condemned the narrative that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, was indicted in drug deals in a US court.
Reports emerged on Tuesday that some documents were said to have been released by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois which allegedly indicted Tinubu in drug dealings and money laundering in Chicago.
The documents which went viral on Tuesday evening, revealed details of Tinubu’s alleged indictment in drug deals and receipt of illegal money while in the US.
The circulating 56-page document showed the long-held view that Tinubu faced issues related to narcotics charges in the US especially with the revelation that he forfeited up to $460,000 to the U.S. authorities in 1993.
Speaking on Channels Television Politics Today on Wednesday, the spokesperson of Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, those saying that Tinubu was indicted went off the rail.
According to him, “There cannot be an indictment if Asiwaju is not a defender or was not a defendant to that case.
“I repeat it for the umpteenth time, I don’t want to sound like a broken record here. Asiwaju was not a party to that case.
“It was just an account that was sued not him.
“It was an account in his name that was sued, so how could you indict him if there was no account?”
According to Keyamo, the accounts flagged in the court documents were only 10 in three banks, which did not all belong to the APC presidential candidate.
“Not in one person’s name. There were ones linked to his mother.
“He took responsibility for all of them because they were all Tinubu family.
“His mother was there, his company was there, his brother was there.
“At the end of the day, they now pleaded with him that ‘please don’t come against us if it was found that we wrongly seized your accounts in the first place’,” he said.
Keyamo urged Nigerians to look at Paragraph 6: Page 2 of the settlement which was signed by the lawyers. He added that the lawyers were appealing to Tinubu not to come against them on the case.
“It was him (Tinubu) giving them indemnity. It was not the other way round by them telling him go and sin no more.
“He (Tinubu) was the one telling them go and sin no more. The documents are there before Nigerians to read,” he said.
Read also:
Drug Dealings: Tinubu Reacts to Released Certified True Copies of US Court Indictment
‘US Court Documents Did Not Indict Tinubu in Drug Deals’ – Keyamo