In a significant development during the ongoing presidential election dispute, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, a witness for President Bola Tinubu, has admitted that the $460,000 forfeited by the Nigerian leader to the United States was connected to a narcotics business and money laundering.
Senator Bamidele, a prominent politician from Ekiti and a long-time protege of President Tinubu, appeared before the election petitions tribunal in Abuja on Wednesday to provide testimony against Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the opposition Labour Party.
Led in his testimony by senior lawyer Lateef Fagbemi, Senator Bamidele revealed that Mr. Obi had joined the Labour Party while still being a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party. He presented the membership registration file of the Labour Party from April 25, 2022, which did not include Mr. Obi’s name on the list. The party’s registration document for Anambra also confirmed his absence as of that period. Mr. Obi officially announced his membership in the Labour Party on May 27, after leaving the PDP on May 25, despite being a frontrunner for the PDP’s presidential ticket.
However, the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal ruled that Mr. Obi did not violate electoral law when he became the Labour Party’s presidential candidate on May 30, just under a month after joining the party. According to electoral law, an aspirant must be a member of a political party for at least 30 days to be eligible as a candidate.
The most significant revelation during Senator Bamidele’s testimony came during cross-examination by Mr. Obi’s lawyers, when he admitted that President Tinubu had indeed forfeited over $460,000 in illicit drug proceeds. The forfeiture took place in the United States in the 1990s while President Tinubu was residing in Chicago. Despite its prominence in the headlines leading up to the presidential election on February 25, the politician had refrained from addressing the forfeiture for several years.
Under questioning from Livy Uzoukwu, Mr. Obi’s senior lawyer, Senator Bamidele confirmed his knowledge that the forfeiture was linked to narcotics dealing and acknowledged the involvement of money laundering in President Tinubu’s case prior to the final forfeiture.
Senator Bamidele, who recently assumed the role of Majority Leader in the Nigerian Senate, is now the highest-profile associate of President Tinubu to verify the forfeiture and the narcotics background of the former Lagos governor. President Tinubu was sworn in as Nigeria’s president on May 29, following his controversial declaration as the winner of the February presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
