Forfeited $460,000: Tinubu not indicted – witness tells tribunal

According to Senate Majority Leader Michael Bamidele, President Bola Tinubu is not facing any criminal charges in a US court.
During the hearings of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja, Bamidele was the only witness called.
The Senate Majority Leader insisted that a forfeiture order against the President by an American court for $460,000 did not replace criminal charges because it related to a civil problem.
He claimed that Tinubu had not been found guilty and given a punishment as necessary by law for there to be criminal charges.
The witness also informed the court that Tinubu was defeated by 10, 292 votes in Kano State’s presidential elections on February 25 for the All Progressives Congress.
A joint petition filed by the Labour Party and its candidate, Peter Obi, was answered by President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and their party, the All Progressives Congress.
The three are co-respondents in the petition filed by the LP and Obi contesting their election as president on February 25.
The respondents, through a team of attorneys led by Wole Olanipekun, SAN (for Tinubu and Shettima) and Lateef Fagbemi, SAN (for the APC), concluded their arguments against the petitioners’ claims after submitting several documents and calling a witness to the stand.
Despite the petitioners’ protests, the documents were accepted as evidence and designated as exhibits by the five-person court panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani.
The petitioner had seven days to answer, the respondents had ten days to file their final written addresses, and the respondents had five days to respond on a point of law.
The parties would be informed of the date for the adoption of the final written addresses, according to Justice Tsammani.
Bamidele said before the court that Obi’s name was absent from the membership list of the LP that had been sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission while being cross-examined by attorney for the APC, Fagbemi, SAN.
A letter from the Nigerian Police to the US Embassy dated February 3, 2003, a letter from the US Embassy to the Nigerian Police dated February 4, 2003, and US Visas and immigration documents between 2011 and 2021 are among the additional papers that were tendered and admitted during Wednesday’s proceedings.
In a related event, Tinubu, Shettima, and the APC formally ended their response to the joint petition filed by the PDP and Atiku Abubakar, the party’s nominee.
The petitioners claimed, among other things, that INEC had broken electoral rules by failing to electronically submit the election results using the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System and the INEC Results Viewing page.
Additionally, they claimed that the president did not receive at least 25% of the votes from the Federal Capital Territory, in violation of the law’s stipulations.
The petition’s respondents presented various papers and called one witness to testify at the resumed hearing in their defense on Wednesday night before concluding their case.
The court ordered the respondents 10 days to submit their final written addresses, the petitioner 7 days to respond, and 5 days to answer on a point of law, much as it did in the Obi case.
Bamidele confirmed during cross-examination by the attorney for the APC, Fagbemi, SAN, that the president has never been accused of a crime by an American court.
This referred to the widely reported court document from the Eastern Division of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois regarding civil forfeiture proceedings against Tinubu involving $460,000.
But the witness insisted that “a charge, an arraignment, and a defense are all necessary before there can be a conviction.”
In terms of criminal charges in the USA, he claimed that the president was in perfect health.
He also reaffirmed the senior attorney’s claim that the president was born a Nigerian citizen.
The witness asserted during cross-examination by Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), counsel for the PDP and Atiku, that receiving 25% of the vote in Abuja was not a prerequisite for winning the presidency.