“Festus Keyamo Deceived Nigerians” – Dino Melaye Shares Document To Prove Tinubu’s Involvement In Drug Crimes

Dino Melaye, spokesperson for Atiku Abubakar’s presidential campaign committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has criticized Festus Keyamo for supporting his principal, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, whose drug trafficking record was unsealed by a US court.

Dino chastised Keyamo for lying Nigerians on television after he stated in a live interview that Tinubu’s name was not on the documents and that he was not a defendant.

Sharing a part of the document to counter Keyamo’s claims, Dino wrote on Twitter saying: “Festus Keyamo deceived Nigerians yesterday on Channels Tv that his Principal’s name is not on the charge and is not a defendant. See this.”

Notwithstanding, Keyamo had also claimed that Tinubu’s drug scandal is a sign of frustration on the part of Tinubu’s opponents who are trying to wake a horse long dead.

On Twitter, Keyamo wrote: “Sign of frustration: They are seeking to wake a horse long dead and buried and for which a media house publicly apologised in 2016 when they tried to use the story.”

His article in this regard read: “One of the unconscionable and wicked lies peddled by political opponents about Bola Ahmed Tinubu was to paint him erroneously as a drug baron.

“The accusation arose out of an investigation by FBI agent Kevin Moss of Tinubu and Compass Investment and Finance accounts at First Heritage Bank and Citi- Bank in the U.S.

“On January 10, 1992, Mr Kevin Moss requested and obtained a court order to freeze the accounts.

“On January 13, 1992, Mr Moss telephoned Tinubu in Nigeria to justify the amounts in the accounts, running into $1.4 million. Part of the money was said to have been deposited by two Nigerians, being investigated for drug offences.

“After the telephone conversation, Tinubu instructed his lawyer in the US to filea lawsuit against the order freezing his accounts.

“This dragged on till 15 September 1993, when an agreement was reached for an out of court settlement. Judge John A Nordberg, of the US district court for the Northern District of Illinois, read out the agreement reached by the two parties. Part of the funds, $460,000 was seized by the government.

“The FBI never charged Tinubu with any drug offence; the case did not go on trial. Tinubu was never convicted. And he was never barred from entering the United States.

“In 2003, ten years after, when the PDP opponents wanted to use the shuttered allegation to disqualify Tinubu from running for a second term in Lagos, the Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun made an enquiry with the American Consulate on Tinubu’s status.

“The Consulate gave Tinubu a clean bill in a reply by the Legal Attache, Michael H. Bonner.”