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Funds Tinubu forfeited to US are tax deductions, not proceeds of drug deals – Keyamo

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The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, said on Wednesday the funds linked to the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu in the United States were not proceeds of drug deals.

Tinubu had come under severe criticism from some Nigerians since he won the APC presidential ticket in June, with some branding him as Nigeria’s version of Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug lord, who was killed in December 1993.

A certified true copy of a settlement order issued in 1993 by a court in the US on forfeiture of funds in bank accounts linked to one “Bola Tinubu” surfaced on social media on Tuesday.

In the document, the court declared that the said funds were proceeds of drug trafficking.

The minister, who featured in a programme on Channels Television, however, insisted that the funds in question were tax deductions.

Keyamo, who is also the spokesman of the APC presidential campaign council, insisted that the APC was not sued or indicted on any charge.

READ ALSO: APC campaign council gives reason for Tinubu’s absence from town hall debate

He said: “Look at paragraph 38 of the said document. They said it is tax. The US authorities took what belonged to them.

“They (US) found money in Tinubu’s accounts and they asked him to come forward to clear the matter.

“In that affidavit of Kevin Moss, 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 are what bankers called investments. They said he had not paid tax on these interests and that settled the matter.”

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