Tinubu was never indicted over the matter – Sanwo-Olu’s aide defends Jagaban after Bloomberg article alleging that US accused him of laundering proceeds of heroin trafficking

After a Bloomberg story regarding Bola Tinubu, Jubril Gawat, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on New Media, supported the APC presidential candidate.

Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidates for the Peoples Democratic Party, were the focus of an article published by Bloomberg titled “Graft Allegations Dog Nigeria’s Main Presidential Hopefuls.”

According to the story, former Lagos state governor Tinubu “fought a lawsuit in which the US accused him of laundering earnings of heroin trafficking and ultimately struck a settlement.”

It read;

Front-runner Bola Tinubu, who secured the ruling party’s nomination earlier this month, was being investigated by the country’s anti-corruption agency as recently as last June. Three decades ago he fought a lawsuit in which the US government accused him of laundering the proceeds of heroin trafficking and eventually reached a settlement.

In July 1993, when Tinubu briefly served as a Nigerian senator, the US government filed a forfeiture lawsuit in Chicago against bank accounts in his name, claiming there was “probable cause” to believe they held the proceeds of heroin dealing. The case followed a probe by the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies into a trafficking network involving Nigerian suppliers.

The IRS secured warrants in January 1992 to seize almost $2 million, according to court filings. While living in Chicago between 1989 and 1991, Tinubu had deposited more than $1.8 million into one of the accounts, before transferring large sums to another bank, according to the US government’s complaint. While disputing the US’s reason for targeting the accounts, Tinubu settled in September 1993, agreeing to give up $460,000 to the US government in exchange for the release of the rest of the money. Tinubu wasn’t indicted over the matter.

Gawat who reacted to the article, shared a screenshot of the part which stated that Tinubu was never indicted. He tweeted “Tinubu was never indicted over the matter”.