One of the official spokespersons of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Presidential Campaign Council, Daniel Bwala, in an interview with Channel TV, transcribed by Linus Aleke, alleges that the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, was indicted by US court and therefore, may risk been disqualified from the contest

Why is your party interested in Tinubu’s narcotics case in the US, which is generating fresh ripples?

We are interested because as a political party we are all gunning for the post of the presidency. Everybody is joisting for the plum office, Atiku has thrown his hat into the ring, same with Bola Tinubu, and facts came to the public fora and he mislead Nigerians. It behoves our party to come to the media space, join issues and distil the facts, and reel out the truth as they are, which is why we are here today. First of all, their first quarrel is that this thing happened thirty years ago, it does not matter if it was one hundred years, if you are vying for a public office, you must be willing to be scrutinized. The reason is that the man who will become the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must undergo what is called security vetting, and must be somebody whom the nation has an idea of his life, from when it started to where he is today. So, that he does not become an object of blackmail or a national security threat. The fact that they came after thirty years is a non-issue.

Does the statute of limitation apply to this matter?

No, the question of the statute of limitation does not even arise, because if it was a crime, it was committed under the laws of the United States, and the laws of Nigeria are different from the laws of the US.

Was it a crime?

Money laundering and dealing with narcotics are criminal offences set out by separate laws in the United States. The US government introduced what they call non-conviction base recovery because the way they operate is that if they are going to prosecute you on a crime that investigation suggests, they are going to spend a lot of money and whatever is the proceed of a crime that they are targeting, they may not be able to get a hold on it until the conclusion of the trial but because under non-conviction base recovery, the idea is to recover as fast as possible the proceeds of crime. They now apply what we call forfeiture proceedings. Forfeiture is a civil proceeding, yes, it is, not a criminal proceeding but the elements that are argued before the civil court under forfeiture proceedings are elements of the crime. It is like an election petition tribunal, it is a sui generis, it is just the proceedings that are civil, but the ingredient upon which the prosecutor will convince the judge, that assets A and B are proceeds of crime under the laws of Illinois are a criminal element.

From the scenario, you just painted, was Bola Tinubu indicted?

Yes, the indictment is an allegation, there is a difference between convictions, yes, and he was indicted. But was he convicted criminally? The answer is no.

…Cuts in. Was it because he didn’t go for a trial?

Yes. Under non-conviction base recovery, there are three types of pleas, there is a plea of guilt, there is a non-guilty and there is no contest. If Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the time that indictment was brought before the judge decided to contest it, it will go into full trial and if the elements are proven, it may lead to his prosecution. What most defendants do in the US is that they don’t want a situation where they will be further exposed. So, they can afford to let go of their assets and that is why they enter into what we call non-contest- that you are not contesting it. You are not saying I am not guilty and you are also not contending. So, whatever you see, you can just carry it. But here lies the issue and Nigerians must know, it is the moral burden that the nation is confronted with. Somebody who has not denied has cooperated with the government of Illinois, about a proceed of crime traceable to his account because if you look at the documents and I think that if you give me one minute you will understand that. Three separate documents, there is one that is the affidavit, the affidavit set out the facts and what the prosecutor was seeking to achieve. Number two, there is a verdict, and the verdict is the finding of the court. So, the affidavit establishes the probable cause and the verdict says that the probable cause has been established under the relevant laws that those assets that they were seizing were proceeds of crime. What they do under non-conviction base recovery is that once that ex parte application is moved the judge must say that the defendant is put on notice. Who are the defendants? If you look at that proof of service which, is another document, you will see the United States of America as the plaintiff and Bola Tinubu as a defendant. So, when you see that, that proof of service presupposes in clear terms the United States Government and the defendant.

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…Cut in. So, Bola Tinubu was a defendant in that case?

Yes, he was a defendant because he was linked to the accounts. You see, the owner of the account and the account are like Siamese twins, they are umbilical-bound, that is why even if you look at when the account was established as a defendant, they said, belonging to Bola Tinubu, and when the court said that the defendant asks to come and show the reason why he should not finally forfeit it. Who is the defendant the court was referring to, digits, or account numbers should come to court? No, the owners of the account should come to court and Bola Tinubu did not contest it, he cooperated to release it. This is where he cannot separate himself from the account.

Was what happened in the US, on Bola Tinubu’s case of forfeiture, seen as a penalty in the eyes of the law?

Yes, you are forfeiting what rightfully you would have argued as your own. Why are you forfeiting it? Because investigation proves a link between you and that item and that the item relates to narcotics. So, narcotics and money laundering are criminal offences. When he was fighting you yesterday, he was very unprofessional, quite frankly because in our profession of law you don’t look at your colleagues whether he is a students or a lawyer, to say take pen and paper and I am teaching you, very insulting.

Were the issues Keyamo raised right in your own eyes and also before the law?

Everything he said was wrong, I thought in law school, I am sorry that I have to say that, we have several courses we teach in law school, and professional ethics is one of them, it is not enough for you to know the law, how you dispense the law, and how you argue the law is as important as the knowledge of the law itself and ones you are losing an argument, we experience that sometimes in court. Once the person is losing argument in court, the person will now descend into the legal gutter to begin to challenge. There is no basis for you to say that apart from two private prosecutors in Nigeria, there is no one that comes close to you, that is lumpatious and unprofessional. That claim is false because we would count thirty prosecutors in Nigeria and it will not get to him. Also, consistently he used the term, I use my trained mind, as a prosecutor, who trained him? He worked under Gani Fawehinmi. Gani was throughout his life not known as a prosecutor. He was a human rights defence attorney and when he said, I am using my prosecutorial, intelligent, or my prosecution mind, there are certain things a prosecutor looks at when he is confronted with a case. Number one, the fact matters, number two, inference, a man who was brought to court, his account was brought to court, at that time the prosecutor’s mind should probe, where was he working, how much was he earning, how much was the amount that the prosecutor saw

…Cuts in. That is the question mark on the source of the fund.
So, this is what a prosecutor thinks, I am suggesting to his prosecutorial mind if the prosecutorial mind is functional. These are the thoughts, how much was Bola earning? So, how much he was earning, even if you multiply it by the number of years, the prosecutor will ask, was it enough to have that large amount of money around that time?

So you reason this matter on the answer that needs to be gotten from APC and the presidential candidate on the source of that money, is that not?

For the Nigerian people, the question should not just be about the sources of the money, the source is important but for the Nigerian people, there is still a cloud around the drug-related activities with someone who wants to be the number one citizen of the country and I will tell you why? Because if you look at opium in Nigeria, very recently and even around the globe, you saw the massive busting of cocaine in Nigeria. This idea of drugs and narcotics in Nigeria is a terrible case and if someone with such questionable character is elected as president, what it means is that it will embolden people who are into those activities, and that is why the person has to come out clean, that is point number one. Point number two, and very important, apart from the drugs, if you look at part 799, and part 680. 680 is a court of appeal case, and 799 is a Supreme Court case, where the spokesperson, apart from the narcotics case, many years ago went to court and also, challenged the certificate of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. In part 7680, volume 12, Nigerian Weekly Law Report, part 680, if you look at page 200 and paragraph 10, these are the words of Festus Keyamo. He said, in a final analysis, however, then he now alluded to all the certificates that he laid down in that affidavit, he said Bola Tinubu presented a dubious certificate. He has not refrained from that even though the judgement of that court dismissed that application because he did attach the affidavit under the summons, but one fact is clear, he has not come out today to deny those things that I say in that case that he no longer believe them.

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Let me quote Keyamo and I will like you to respond to that, he said, the document on the left is the originating process, which indicates that Tinubu is not a party to the case in rem, … but does not make him a party, is like a director appearing to defend a company, that was what Mr. Keyamo said, do you agree with that?

He said that, and you believed him. He is comparing it to a director who is defending a company, as the director not the alter ego of the company. Why do you think a few days ago, there was a judgement that Mr Bawa should be committed to prison, did he as a person violate the law? But because he was the chairman of EFCC, the alter ego. So, who is the owner of the account? How do you separate the owner and the account? So you know the doctrine of confidentiality that exists between a banker and a customer relating to the account, without an order of the court, the bank does not have any right to disclose the details of a financial transaction in an account, that is how inseparable your account is with you and so when the account was joined as a defendant, by the time the ex parte order was granted, the court said, let the defendant come and establish why it should not be given the final forfeiture. Who are the defendants? The owners of the accounts.

The letter received by late IGP Tafa Balogun from US Embassy in Lagos exonerated Tinubu according to Keyamo, how valid is that?

Laughter, is that what he said? …he said that they don’t have a criminal record about Bola Tinubu… That was because under civil forfeiture proceedings as you can see in that order because it is part of the documents, you will see the order of the court. After the order was given and the money was to be taken, underneath, you will see the case close. In other words, it is like you have been convicted, I am just using the term like in a criminal case. When you have finished convicting somebody and you sentence him, do you retry him again? That means that as far as that case is concerned, it is conclusively concluded, not in favour of Bola because he has to forfeit that that is number one. Number two, I heard him yesterday saying that it is the party who wanted to know because they don’t want to make the mistake of fielding him for re-election, that is not true, don’t deceive Nigerians. His former boss, Gani Fawehinmi was the one that started this case. He applied to the court for mandamus, he even asked to be given the right to prosecute the matter. It was Gani that sparked off this issue and it was a legal matter that was why the party was compelled. It was around that time that Festus Keyamo went to court and said in addition to it, the man’s certificate also have a problem.

On a final note, what is your submission on this matter?

I am afraid that this case concludes that from the eyes of the law, especially if you look at the constitutional provision you cited, Bola may be disqualified from contesting.

By who?

If the matter goes to court, interpreting that provision of the constitution because the finding in that civil forfeiture proceedings has ended against him and that is why he forfeited that, and narcotics and money laundering, whether in America or Nigeria, is a criminal offence.