The court today was thrown into a slight frenzy after senator Opeyemi Bamidele, a witness for Bola Tinubu in the ongoing presidential election petition dispute wholeheartedly admitted that the $460,000 that the president forfeited to the United States government, came from a narcotics business and money laundering.
Mr Bamidele, a strong ally of Mr president was at the election petitions tribunal on Wednesday in Abuja to give testimony against Mr Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party.
Senator Bamidele, who was led in his testimony by senior lawyer Lateef Fagbemi, noted that Mr Obi joined the Labour Party while he was still holding his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Meanwhile, among other documents, Mr Bamidele tendered in the court is the membership registration document of the Labour Party as of April 25, 2022, which revealed that Mr Obi was not a member because his name could not be found on the list.
Also, the party’s registration document for Anambra did not include Mr Obi’s name as of that period.
However, the peak of Mr Bamidele’s testimony came when he admitted under cross-examination by Mr Obi’s lawyers that Mr Tinubu indeed forfeited over $460,000 in illicit drug proceeds.
The case occurred in the United States in the 1990s when Mr Tinubu was living in Chicago. The politician had declined to address the forfeiture for several years, despite its domination of headlines in the run-up to the presidential election on February 25.
Livy Uzoukwu, a senior lawyer leading Obi’s legal team, asked whether or not Mr Bamidele knew that the forfeiture was connected to narcotics dealing, to which he responded yes.
He also responded that he understood there was money laundering involved in Mr Tinubu’s matter prior to the final forfeiture.
Mr Bamidele, who recently became the majority leader of the Nigerian Senate, appeared to be the most high-profile associate of Mr Tinubu to confirm forfeiture and narcotics background of the former Lagos Governor who was sworn in as Nigeria’s president on May 29, following his controversial declaration as winner of the February presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
