Drug case: US begged Tinubu not to file charges against her, says Keyamo

Spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo (SAN), says the trending true certified US court documents linking the Bola Tinubu to drug cartel have been sufficiently addressed and dismissed. In an interview on Channel TV ‘Politics Today’, monitored by Linus Aleke, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment gives other details of the matter

Can you explain to Nigerians the level of involvement of your principal, the APC presidential flag bearer, Bola Tinubu, in the narcotics and money laundering case in the United States?

This is all a storm in a teacup and nothing more than that. The issue is not new, so, let me, first of all, clarify that. You saw some blogs and online news sites making those normal wide introductions like breaking news, just in, fresh facts. No, those are not fresh facts, they are not new issues, these issues have been in the public domain for more than twenty years and the issue has been sufficiently addressed and dismissed. Being here today is really out of deference to perhaps young voters who may think that these are new issues and out of respect to Nigerians generally to come and further explain. But if you ask me, none of these allegations deserve any explanation again because they have been explained over and over again. But let me go straight to the issues you have mentioned. Yes, there is a simplistic letter, a letter that is simple enough, we can go straight to that first of all, from the US government in 2003, that says that that letter was signed by the legal attaché to the US Embassy in Lagos, which said that they investigated or made inquiries from the government of the United States and they came to a conclusion. Officially, they wrote back, one Michael Bonnette, wrote back at the time saying that there was no criminal indictment, no conviction, and nothing of sort regarding Bola Ahmed Tinubu. But what was the background to that? The background to that was that in 2003, months preceding the re-election of Tinubu as governor of Lagos State. There were several petitions from even his party, the Alliance for Democracy (AD). So, the screening committee at that time has to raise alarm to the party that they did not want to put the ticket of the party in Lagos State in a danger. Because they were scared that perhaps, many of those petitions that were written against Tinubu, may have some substance and they were these allegations like you have said. This, of course, happened twenty years ago, these same allegations, nothing more than that. This same paper was obtained, and the same paper was submitted to AD (defunct Alliance for Democracy) screening committee. So, the chairman of AD at the time, Prince Ogunleye, was forced to write to the CP Lagos State, Mr Arabame, now late, asking him to get in touch with his law enforcement colleagues in the US to confirm the veracity or otherwise of the document. This was to determine if they should give Tinubu the AD ticket for re-election. So, it was his party then, out of pure autistic motive that they wanted to unravel the truth of the matter, so as not to make mistake in the choice of their would-be candidate. The then CP Lagos State escalated the matter to the IGP, then Tafa Balogun, who is also now late, Tafa Balogun, in his capacity as the IGP, wrote an official letter to the United States, through the Embassy in Lagos, requesting a response as to whether Tinubu was involved in such criminalities. The US Embassy contacted the FBI and there was an investigation into the matter. The FBI supplied the needed information through the Embassy in Lagos state. Then Michael Bonnette wrote back to IGP Balogun and said look, we have official confirmation from the US that there was no criminal indictment, no conviction, and no criminal charge against Tinubu. But then, was that the end of the matter? No, because his detractors keep bringing up this issue over and over again. At any point in time that his political profile is rising or when he wants to run for office, they will bring up this same issue. But let me go back, as you mentioned to what happened because there was a case, papers are flying up and down, and at this point, even though we have confirmed that there was no conviction. Even though we have confirmed that he was fit to run for office. Even though we have confirmed that he had met all the constitutional requirements to run for office. But there are papers, after all, they are certified true copies. Now, the date on the papers mentioned, the papers are flying up and down, and the date of the certification is 2022. So, they are using it to confuse people that these are fresh papers coming from the United States. Let me explain this to non-lawyers, if the document is 40 or 200 years old in court, once you go to court and apply for a certified true copy of those documents, they will give you those documents but they will stamp the day they are giving you those documents. In other words, they are putting the stamp on the day those documents are certified. So, they are not fresh documents, it is just the stamp of certification to confirm that you have just requested them. This is what the detractors and the PDP, perhaps which is what they went to the US for when they pretended that they went for a high-level engagement. This is part of the high-level engagement they went for, just to go and deceive Nigerians and bring out washed-out papers. Papers that are dead, brought them back to Nigeria and said freshly issued court papers in the US. They are not freshly issued, they have just been certified by the US court. But then, going into those documents, what happened? Bola Tinubu was not even a defendant, in that case, go back to the documents, it was an action in rem not an action in ‘personam’, for those who are non-lawyers or law students, let me explain. An action in rem is an action where you proceed against properties, not against the person. So, what they did at that time was that they proceeded against certain accounts, and those accounts bore companies that were linked to Bola Tinubu or the one personally held by him. Those accounts were 10 in number and held in three different banks. Accounts legitimately opened by him and they held funds he saved in those accounts. As I speak with you, if you want to know if there is a criminal charge against somebody, you must have a complainant. That is why you see the state vs somebody or corporate entity, you must see that and then you must have a charge number, if there is a chance against anybody, there must be a charge number in the documents. The documents in question also reflect the title of plaintiff vs defendant, a criminal process does not bear a title plaintiff, and a criminal process does not. There is no such in all of those documents. Please permit me the modesty at this moment, because I keep mentioning these things to tell you that I am not just a lawyer. If you look at that document, Bola Tinubu was not mentioned as a defendant, it was only the account numbers that were mentioned, and at the end of the day, they said the account number in the name of Tinubu that is all. Not that Tinubu was a defendant, it was the accounts in his name, not him. Those accounts were sued not him, it was an action in rem. So, there was no charge, there was no indictment, and there was no criminal process, it was purely civil process against those accounts. But then, what happened against those accounts? There was an affidavit by somebody called Kevin Morse. Kevin Morse is just a normal prosecutor you see, like some of us, were in the EFCC. As I said, let me just be a little immodest, immodest in the sense that I am not just a lawyer, I am not just a member of the inner bar, I am one of the most experienced criminal prosecutors in this country, private prosecutors, apart from one or two persons who are private prosecutors who were also graduates in the quote of Gani Fawehinmi. I have done more prosecution apart from one or two like I said, as a private prosecutor in the entire country today, up to the point that I became a minister, a day before I was in court prosecuting on behalf of EFCC and other law enforcement agencies that have hired my services over the years. So, my prime area is criminal prosecution, so I can say this without fear of any contradiction. Apart from being a fellow of International Arbitration, so, nobody can teach me anything about criminal procedure. This is the same thing we do here in Nigeria, what they did in the case of Bola Tinubu was to file what they call an interim process for forfeiture, it was not a final process. In that interim process they filed, Kevin Morse made those speculations. It was not the judgement of a court, it was an opinion of a prosecutor trying to convince a court to issue a forfeiture order, so people should not see those depositions and begin to shout, the US has done this or that, it was not the opinion of a court. It was just the opinion of the prosecutor.

Were the account numbers involved that of your principal, Bola Tinubu?

Yes, not only he but companies were also linked to it, including his relatives. People should take note of that, his relatives including his aged mother at that time, the late Abibatu Mogaji Tinubu, so what do you want to say? Do you want to link her to narcotics?

Did Bola Tinubu contest or concede ownership of the account numbers?

He did not, he owned up to them. At a point when they were calling him on phone, if you look at the affidavit of Kevin Morse, perhaps he skipped one or two accounts that were in the UK. Normally like we do in the EFCC, they will, first of all, ask for the disclosure of all your properties and accounts once you are brought in, it is a standard procedure, and they will ask for it. Up until the point that I was appointed minister, this case of Ike Ekweremadu that you are seeing, let me even give something to Nigerians that they will understand. This matter of Ekweremadu that you are hearing, I started it, it was the same kind of application that I filed for interim forfeiture, but that does not mean that he is guilty, we only found property traced to Ekweremadu, he could perhaps come forward and explain to Nigerians or the EFCC at that time or to the Special Investigative Panel because I was acting for the Special Investigative Panel before the EFCC took over the case. I started the Ekweremadu case, I applied, I filed the application in court, this same kind of application, and it does not mean we found him guilty. In that affidavit, I also depose to this kind of affidavit by Kevin Morse, I depose to it to say that by investigation, we found out that some of these properties were linked to him, he should come forward and explain, how he acquired these properties and so it was a presumption. This process is a mere presumption, so they found money in his account and said that he needed to come forward. In the affidavit of Kevin Morse they said that they interviewed Mobil, Mobil said that Tinubu was their Treasurer, but added that the funds in question are not from them. But they confirmed his status not as a criminal but as a respectable employee of Mobil, it is in that affidavit of Kevin Morse. Now, after all the rigmarole, look at paragraph 38 of the affidavit by Kevin Morse, I want everybody to look at paragraph 38, it concluded that the deposit he made in those accounts was an investment, he kept the money there and he was getting profit and they said that he had not paid tax on those interests. That was all and guess what? The bankers were supposed to deduct the tax at source. I had done investment before, when you put money in the bank, and you go to collect your interests at the end of the month, they will pay you, minus the charges and tax, so it was not like a deliberate act.

Would you liken the settlement that Bola Tinubu had with the court in the United States over this issue, to a sort of plea bargain?

No, you cannot build something on anything and expect it to stand. A plea bargain must arise out of a criminal charge, like I said earlier, there was no charge and there was no conviction.

You established that there was a forfeiture, but if there was a forfeiture that was made, which, is still subsisting and had not been set aside up to date

…Cuts in. No, no, no, you see that is why I said you should take a pen and paper, this is a lecture class for you, a forfeiture is not something hanging on your neck, it is a permanent settlement between two parties. You both shake hands and go your separate ways. Now, look at that settlement signed by the counsel to Tinubu then, and the counsel to the United States. I want you to look at paragraph 6, page 2 of that settlement signed. In that paragraph 6, they were even begging Tinubu, they said, please don’t proceed against us again. This is a final settlement between us, go your way, and we go our way. Out of the 10 accounts, it was only one account, the one in Heritage Bank that they took $460,000 as their tax on interest that he benefited from the investment deposit he made and they gave him nine accounts. All the money in Heritage Bank was not even taken, they took only $460,000 which they calculated as their tax. I want you to look at that paragraph 6, they were begging him. The US begged Tinubu not to file charges against her. These documents rather than indict Tinubu, exculpate him and made him as white as snow.

I don’t want you to play with the sensibility of Nigerians because you are speaking to millions of them, so the issue of taking pen and paper does not arise, now I ask you Mr Keyamo, what was the source of the money he deposited as an investment in the US bank that had continued to trigger this controversy for over two decades?

Thank you so much, at that point the burden was on the US prosecutor to prove that the funds were proceeds of narcotics or money laundering. I want you to go to paragraph 2 of the affidavit of Kevin Morse, he kept saying that it was his reasonable suspicion, it was like probable cause, and in fact, it was speculative. They had not come to a definite conclusion, let me tell you what happened, if you see the whole gamut of that affidavit, it was more or less like, you know it happens to all of us Nigerians, you go to a foreign country, any Nigerian you see, especially from your tribe is like a brother to you. You associate with them, you visit them, and you may do one or two transactions with them but, you may not know exactly what they are into. It happens to all of us, that investigation as you can see touched on two or three Nigerians. So, let me agree that it had nothing to do with Tinubu, I don’t want to mention their names here, and people should go and read the affidavit because they have families in Nigeria. Of the two other Nigerians who were linked to narcotics, one of them was arrested, and that one made confessional statements and implicated the other Nigerian as the person involved. That principal suspect read that affidavit, he never mentioned the name of Tinubu. What happened? Tinubu went to open an account, the address by which he opened an account was an address already used by these people, and I think it was a block of flats, he may have lived in that block of flats, and they now linked him because these two others they were investigating for narcotics lived in the same block of flats.

There were allegations that your principal was a member of a drug cartel for which he was a treasurer, how valid is this allegation?

Please do not deviate from that affidavit. I want Nigerians to fact-check both of us on this. They never mentioned him as a Treasurer, they said he was a treasurer of Mobil Oil, but they never said he was a Treasurer of any narcotics group. What they said was that he was found to have worked for an organisation owned by the people they were investigating. That he worked for that organisation, that distribution organisation, without going into detail or providing any further proof. I am very careful about the phrase that was used in that affidavit by Kevin Morse because with a trained eye of a prosecutor I read that affidavit line by line, l read it more than ten years ago and concluded that Tinubu has no case to answer and has nothing to do with this. If a prosecutor is looking for anything to nail him, he will go to that particular paragraph that links Tinubu to those two individuals. But after that rigmarole, they now came to the case of Tinubu, they said that friends and relatives who worked for that organisation owned by this people were somebody known as Tinubu that is how they came to link him. Prosecutors do that in a sweeping manner.

Let me refer you to section 137 of the constitution 1999 as amended, sub-section 1(d), which says that a person under a sentence or imprisonment or fine for any offense involving dishonesty or fraud, by whatever name it is called or for any other offences imposed on him by any court or tribunal shall not be qualified to contest for the office of the President of Nigeria, given the forfeiture settlement that Bola Tinubu had in the US, as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, what are the implementation of that circumstance considering, section 137 subsection 1(d), of the constitution?

Forfeiture is not fine, I don’t want to refer to you again when I say that I am educating and that this is like a class for law students everywhere who think that forfeiture is fine, a fine is a punishment, the fine is a consequence of a conviction, the fine is a consequence of a criminal trial, so fine has nothing to do with forfeiture. Forfeiture is a civil process, it is a complete civil process to say well, we are not even going into trial at all, the state goes into forfeiture proceeding with individuals just to get their money, and it does not mean you have committed a crime, you may not have fulfilled your citizen obligation regarding finances just like a tax.