FORMER Minister of Aviation Femi Fani-Kayode has said the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate for the 2023 election, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was cleared of drug trafficking allegations in the United States by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Fani-Kayode, who is one of the spokespersons of the APC Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC), made this known in a lengthy article on Friday.
He was reacting to a recent controversy trailing court documents showing how the former Lagos governor forfeited $460,000 to the United States over allegations of drug trafficking published earlier this week.
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The court documents, which were said to have been released by a Chicago court, also accused Tinubu of money laundering and tax evasion in 1993.
The revelations have since generated a flurry of reactions among Nigerians on social media who are asking Tinubu, one of the leading contenders in presidential election, to come out clean on the allegations.
In his reaction, Fani-Kayode said FBI authorities found nothing incriminating against the APC presidential candidate after the conclusion of their investigation.
He said, “The $460,000 was seized only as a consequence of the IRS claiming and asserting that he (Tinubu) had not paid tax on his numerous American investments.
“Tinubu chose not to challenge or dispute that claim and assertion by the IRS even though he was perfectly within his rights to do so and hence he willingly forfeited that money.
“The seizure of the $460,000 USD had nothing [sic] to do with drugs or links to drug trafficking. Rather it had everything to do with tax and it was the IRS that claimed it.
“The FBI investigated Tinubu for links to drugs and laundering drug money and they found NOTHING.
“He came out clean. Most of the money they originally seized was returned.”
While maintaining that the money that was not returned had nothing to do with drugs, he described Tinubu as “a clean, wholesome, hard-working and innocent man”, with those alleging malpractices against him “simply trying to derail his presidential ambition.”
He claimed $1 million was later returned to Tinubu, and he was not indicted for any crime whatsoever.
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