The presidential election tribunal has stated that the
Labour Party (LP) failed to prove that President Bola Tinubu should have been
disqualified from contesting the 2023 election on account of a forfeiture
agreement.
In 1993, Tinubu surrendered $460,000 to the US government
after a Chicago court found that the money was the proceed of heroin
trafficking.
The forfeiture deal was one of the prayers against Tinubu by
Peter Obi of the LP and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
While reading the lead judgment, Justice Haruna Tsammani,
said the evidence (Exhibit P5) tendered by the petitioners shows that it was a
civil forfeiture case.
Tsammani held that the petitioners failed to adduce credible
evidence to show that Tinubu was arraigned or took a plea or was sentenced or
fined in any criminal suit in the US.
“The petitioners have evidently failed to establish their
allegation that the 2nd respondent is disqualified from contesting the presidential
election under Sec 137 (1)(d) of the 1999 constitution because he was fined
$460,000 by a district court in Illinois,” he said.
“The order of forfeiture in exhibit P5 on which the
petitioners have relied does not qualify as a sentence of fine for an offence
involving dishonesty or fraud within the confabulation of Section 137 (d) of
the 1999 constitution.”
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