‘What US told IGP over Tinubu drug allegation’
The United States Consulate dismissed the allegation of drug involvement by Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). This is contained in a statement issued by Bayo Onanuga, the campaign spokesperson.
According to him, former Inspector-General of Police Tafa Balogun, wrote to the US consulate on the matter in 2003.
In its response, the consulate reportedly wrote that “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,” said Michael H. Bonner, the consulate’s legal attaché.
Giving a background of the drug allegation, Onanuga further said: “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.
“In 2003, ten years after, when the PDP opponents wanted to use the shuttered allegation to disqualify Tinubu from running for a second term in Lagos, the Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun made an enquiry with the American Consulate on Tinubu’s status.
The Consulate gave Tinubu a clean bill in a reply by the Legal Attache, Michael H. Bonner.”
