Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, a witness for President Bola Tinubu in the ongoing Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja, has admitted that the $460,000 that the Nigerian leader forfeited to the United States came from a narcotics business and money laundering.
Bamidele who was at the PEPC on Wednesday to testify against Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), admitted under cross-examination by Obi’s lawyers that Tinubu indeed forfeited over $460,000 in illicit drug proceeds.
The case occurred in the U.S. in the 1990s when Tinubu was living in Chicago. The
All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate had declined to address the forfeiture, despite its domination of headlines in the run-up to the 2023 presidential election.
However, when asked by Livy Uzoukwu, a senior lawyer handling Obi’s case whether or not Bamidele know that the forfeiture was connected to narcotics dealing, the Senator responded in the affirmative, yes.
Bamidele, however, explained that the $460, 000 forfeiture order against Tinubu by an American Court was in respect of a civil matter that cannot take the place of criminal charges, noting that there was no conviction and sentence against the Nigerian leader as required by law for it to be turned to criminal charges.
Meanwhile, contrary to Tinubu’s decision to call 39 witnesses, he terminated his defence with just Bamidele in the petition by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi seeking nullification of the February 25 2023 presidential election.
