A WITNESS for President Bola Tinubu, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, on Wednesday, July 5, admitted that the $460,000 Tinubu forfeited to the United States (US) came from a narcotics business and money laundering.
The newly hand-picked Senate Leader from Ekiti and long-time associate of the President made the admission while testifying as as Tinubu’s witness against the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the February 25, 2023 election, Peter Obi.
Bamidele tendered the membership registration file of the LP as at April 25, 2022, showing that Obi was not a member, as his name could not be found on the list of the party’s registration document for Anambra State.
Recall that Obi’s left the PDP on May 25 and was until then, one of the frontrunners for in the bid for PDP’s presidential ticket. He formally announced his LP membership two days later on May 27.
The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal had ruled that Obi did not violate the electoral law, even though he became LP’s candidate on May 30, less than a month after he joined the party, as the electoral law only specified that an aspirant must have been a member of a political party for at least 30 days to be eligible to be a candidate.
It was while being cross-examination by Obi’s lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu, that Bamidele admitted that Tinubu indeed forfeited over $460,000 in illicit drug proceeds in the United States in the 1990s when Tinubu was living in Chicago.
Uzoukwu had asked the ranking senator and lawyer whether he knew that the forfeiture was connected to narcotics dealing, to which he responded yes, saying he understood there was money laundering involved in Tinubu’s matter prior to the final forfeiture.
