$460k forfeiture: Obi, LP failed to prove Tinubu was convicted, says tribunal

The presidential election tribunal has stated that the Labour Party (LP) failed to prove that President Bola Tinubu should have been disqualified from contesting the 2023 election on account of a forfeiture agreement.

In 1993, Tinubu surrendered $460,000 to the US government after a Chicago court found that the money was the proceed of heroin trafficking.

The forfeiture deal was one of the prayers against Tinubu by Peter Obi of the LP and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

While reading the lead judgment, Justice Haruna Tsammani said the evidence (Exhibit P5) tendered by the petitioners showed that it was a civil forfeiture case.

Tsammani held that the petitioners failed to adduce credible evidence to show that Tinubu was arraigned or took a plea or was sentenced or fined in any criminal suit in the US.

“The petitioners have evidently failed to establish their allegation that the 2nd respondent is disqualified from contesting the presidential election under Sec 137 (1)(d) of the 1999 constitution because he was fined $460,000 by a district court in Illinois,” he said.

“The order of forfeiture in exhibit P5 on which the petitioners have relied does not qualify as a sentence of fine for an offence involving dishonesty or fraud within the confabulation of Section 137 (d) of the 1999 constitution.”