Chief Spokesperson for the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo has claimed that the alleged drug money the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate forfeited in the United States was tax.
Keyamo made the claim following the controversy surrounding a document recently released by the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, after Tinubu’s alleged involvement in narcotics and money laundering about 30 years ago was investigated.
Appearing on a Channels Television program Wednesday night, Keyamo insisted that Tinubu was an employee of Mobil Oil and not a treasurer of a drug cartel.
He also said that he (Tinubu) deposited some funds in bank accounts in the US as investments and got returns on those investments.
He claimed that 10 accounts were linked to Tinubu by United States authorities in the early 90s, and $460,000 were deducted from one of the accounts as tax on investments domiciled in US banks.
The Minister of state for Labour also said Tinubu took responsibility for all the 10 accounts because they were also traced to his mother and “relatives”.
He added that the banks were supposed to deduct taxes from the investments but they did not and this was not a “deliberate act” on the part of Tinubu.
Keyamo said;
“He, Asiwaju, went to open an account, the address by which he opened the account was already used by these people…investigated for narcotics.
“The deposits he made there (in banks) are what bankers called investments; he kept the money there and he was getting interests.
“They (US government) said he had not paid tax on those interests. That is all and guess what?
“The banks are supposed to deduct the tax from source.
“Out of the 10 accounts, it was only one account – the one in Heritage Bank – that they took $460,000 as tax on interest that he benefited on the investment he made in those accounts.
“In fact, all the money in Heritage Bank was not taken; they took only $460,000 as tax.”
Keyamo insisted that there’s no criminal indictment or conviction against Tinubu, alleging that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was behind the reincarnation of the controversial court document.
He added;
“His (Tinubu’s) detractors kept bringing up these issues over and over when his political profile is rising, when he wants to run for office or any political turn in his life, they will bring up these issues.
“The date on the papers flying up and down, the date of certification is 2022, so they are using this to confuse people that these are fresh papers.
” If documents are 40 years old or 100 years old, once you go to court, and apply for certified true copies of those documents, they will give you those documents but they will stamp the day they are giving you those documents.
“This is what our detractors, the PDP, perhaps that is what they went to the US for when they pretended that they went for high-level engagement.
“This is part of the high-level engagement they went for.”
