*Says funds forfeited to US were tax deductions
The Spokesman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), has disclosed that the funds linked to the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu, in the United States were tax deductions and not proceeds from drug trafficking.
The Senior Advocate also dismissed allegations that Tinubu was indicted in the trending US case.
Keyamo made the clarification on Wednesday when he appeared before the Channels Television’s popular programme, Politics Today.
It is important to note that the social media has been awashed with certain twitter accounts displaying what they claimed to be certified true copies of a settlement order by a US court at the Northern District of Illinois, regarding forfeiture of funds in some bank accounts linked to someone named “Bola Tinubu”.
The twitter accounts also reported that the sum of $460,000 in one of the accounts be forfeited to the US government while the court document also showed that the case was heard in the US in 1993.
Debunking the social media report during the television interview with the programme’s anchorman, Seun Okinbaloye, Keyamo said Tinubu was not sued or indicted on any charge, adding that the case was regarding the funds in 10 bank accounts linked to Tinubu.
He said, “These processes are mere presumptions. They found money in his (Tinubu) accounts and they said he needed to come forward.
“In that affidavit of Kevin Moss, they said they interviewed Mobil and Mobil said this man is a treasurer in Mobil. Mobil said the funds are not for them.
“They confirmed his status not as a criminal but as a respected employee of Mobil. It is in that affidavit.
“After all the rigamarole trying to find out whether the accounts where the money came from are linked to drugs, they came to the conclusion that the deposits he made — what these bankers called investments — they said he had not paid tax on these interests. That is all.
“Look at paragraph 38. They said it is tax. They took what belonged to them.”
Speaking on the allegation of indictment, Keyamo said, “There cannot be an indictment if Asiwaju is not a defender or was not a defendant to that case.
“I repeat it for the umpteenth time, I don’t want to sound like a broken record here. Asiwaju was not a party to that case.
“It was just an account that was sued, not him.
“It was an account in his name that was sued, so how could you indict him if there was no account?”
When Okinbaloye asked him how many accounts were involved, Keyamo simply said 10 in three banks.
He then said: “Not in one person’s name. There were ones linked to his mother.
“He took responsibility for all of them because they were all from the Tinubu family.
“His mother was there, his company was there, his brother was there.
“At the end of the day, they now pleaded with him that ‘please don’t come against us if it was found that we wrongly seized your accounts in the first place’.”
Keyamo thereafter challenged the public to look at Paragraph 6: Page 2 of the settlement signed by the lawyers.
He added that the lawyers were appealing to Tinubu not to come against them in the case.
The APC spokesperson said, “It was him (Tinubu) giving them indemnity. It was not the other way round by them telling him to go and sin no more.
“He (Tinubu) was the one telling them to go and sin no more. The documents are there before Nigerians to read.”
 Presidential Campaign Council, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), has disclosed that the funds){kind=link}