BREAKING: U.S. court releases certified true copies of Bola Tinubu’s drug dealing, money laundering case in Chicago

Bola Tinubu allegedly engaged in drug trafficking and money laundering, according to new records provided by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Peoples Gazette reports.

Due to his involvement in a Chicago drug trafficking case in the early 1990s, Mr. Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress and a former governor of Lagos, has been the target of severe political and public criticism.

According to Peoples Gazette, Mr. Tinubu chose to talk about other aspects of his experience in corporate accounting, consulting, and pro-democracy advocacy instead of the narcotics scandal, which has been in the news since at least the middle of the 2000s. 

He did, however, state in his application to run for office with the INEC electoral office that he had never been convicted of a crime before.

The issue has also been completely downplayed by Mr. Tinubu's allies as a pointless diversion from Nigeria's democratic experience because it occurred decades ago in another language.

Nigerians, meanwhile, have steadfastly demanded that the presidential hopeful reveal his role in the case, which resulted in his forfeiture of up to $460,000 to American authorities in 1993.

The 56-page document, which was made public by the district court's Chicago headquarters, did not reveal any significant new information, but it did validate some things that had been mentioned in passing by the media for years. 

Following an article published in West Africa Weekly on July 13, journalist David Hundeyin rekindled interest in Mr. Tinubu's history of drug peddling. The documents can be found here.

According to the most recent certified court documents, obtained on August 10, Mr. Tinubu and two other people named K.O. Tinubu and Alhaji Mogati were involved in laundering money and banking the proceeds of illegal drug sales at Heritage Bank and Citibank. 

It wasn't immediately obvious whether or if Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, Mr. Tinubu's foster mother, who passed away in 2013, was misspelled as "Alhaji Mogati."

Lawyer has petitioned the EFCC and NDLEA, Nigerian anti-graft and anti-narcotics departments, respectively, to probe Tinubu's involvement in the drug charges. 

The matter was resolved in a compromise between the Tinubus and the U.S. authorities in July 1993. 

A federal judge subsequently dismissed the matter with prejudice, which effectively foreclosed the matter from being litigated again. 

"It is our view that you have a historic duty to ensure that Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu is called to account for his deeds in money laundering arising from his involvement in narcotics trafficking," Mr Kalu from his think-tank Centre for Reform & Public Accountability in Abuja.  

He petitioned the EFCC and NDLEA, Nigerian anti-graft and anti-narcotics departments, respectively, to probe Mr Tinubu's involvement in the drug charges before the presidential elections in February.