The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has told the Presidential Election Petitions Court sitting in Abuja that it was unaware of the over 20-year-old United States District Court judgment which ordered President Bola Tinubu to forfeit $460,000 suspected to be proceeds of the narcotics trade.
According to INEC, the case was not brought to its attention before the 2023 presidential election.
This was contained in its final written address filed by its lead counsel, A.B. Mahmoud SAN, against the petition filed by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi.
In one of the grounds of Obi’s petition which seeks the removal of President Tinubu, his legal team led by Dr. Livy Uzoukwu SAN stated that Tinubu was at the time of the election not qualified to contest for election to the office of President as he was fined the sum of $460,000.00 (Four-Hundred and Sixty Thousand United States Dollars) for an offense involving dishonesty, namely narcotics trafficking, imposed by the United
States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in Case No: 93C 4483 titled “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. Plaintiff FUNDS IN ACCOUNT 263226700 HELD BY FIRST HERITAGE BANK, IN THE NAME OF BOLA TINUBU.”
They had urged the PEPC to disqualify Tinubu on that ground, among other prayers.
