Keyamo defends Tinubu over US certified document on drug trafficking, money laundering, says $460,000 was tax deduction, not forfeiture

The Spokesperson of the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Festus Keyamo SAN, has defended the widely circulated certified copies of court documents released by the U.S. authorities on the trial of the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in the US many years ago.

Keyamo speaking on Channels Television acknowledged that 10 accounts were linked to Tinubu by U.S. in the 1990s, arguing that $460,000 was deducted from one of the accounts as tax on investments in   a US banks.

Certified copies of court documents released by the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois revealed  investigation of Tinubu for drug trafficking and money laundering, including compromise for forfeiture of $460,000 in one of the accounts linked to Tinubu.

Keyamo stated Tinubu took responsibility for all the 10 accounts which were traced to his mother and “relatives”. He, however, disputed that Tinubu was involved in any of the offences raised by the U.S. court, saying that Tinubu was roped in the drug trafficking case of two Nigerians who once stayed in separate flats in the same building the APC presidential candidate stayed at a time in the US.

Keyamo had narrated: “He, Asiwaju, went to open an account, the address by which he opened the account was already used by these people…investigated for narcotics.”

Keyamo disclosed that Tinubu, an employee of Mobil Oil, deposited funds in bank accounts in the US as investments and got returns on those investments. The presidential spokesperson said that the banks were supposed to deduct taxes from the investments but they did not, noting that this was not a “deliberate act” on the part of Tinubu.

Keyamo had narrated: “The deposits he made there (in banks) are what bankers called investments; he kept the money there and he was getting interests. They said he had not paid tax on those interests. That is all… 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.”