National Issues
Inside The Story of a Bagman for Drug Barons -By Sunday O. Oladepo
In their judgments, the Federal High court and Appeal courts ruled that Tinubu, who’s a sitting governor couldn’t be tried because he enjoyed immunity from prosecution. Gani Fewehinmi, unsatisfied with the outcome, proceeded to the Supreme court who reaffirmed the judgments of the lower courts.
People don’t read nor spend their time to dig and uncover cover-ups. Tinubu’s news of involvement in narcotics entered my consciousness as far back as 2011. Those days I wrote people’s names on Google to dig about their persons. Then, I stumbled on an article, “Tinubu, Abiodun Agbele and Adegboyega Mueez Akande”, paraphrased. I read the story that’s today the trending debate. I downloaded enough digital documents to fact-check different claims. That’s about 11years ago when I was freshly out of Uni.
A few months ago when David Hundeyin wrote an article that revisited that ugly history, some folks, probably reading the story anew, lambasted and pressed his neck. It was such a deprecating article to them. The story generated a lot of textual pugilistic exchanges online. Hundeyin’s article, “Bola Ahmed Tinubu: From Drug Lord to Presidential Candidate”, written in his blog, West Africa Weekly, tensioned the Nigerian Twitter space for weeks.
Tinubu has always been immersed in several controversial stories. In 1999 when Tinubu was running for Lagos state governor, he made a simplistic claim of lost certificates in his filing with the Independent National Electoral Commission, but the late iconic lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) filed an order at the Federal High Court, Lagos, to compel security operatives to investigate criminal allegations against him.
In their judgments, the Federal High court and Appeal courts ruled that Tinubu, who’s a sitting governor couldn’t be tried because he enjoyed immunity from prosecution. Gani Fewehinmi, unsatisfied with the outcome, proceeded to the Supreme court who reaffirmed the judgments of the lower courts. However, 15years after the expiration of Tinubu’s tenures, nobody has dared to revisit the allegations, except one Dr. Dominic Adegbola’s unsuccessful application of 2003 to dig the suit.
Maybe the allegation of Tinubu’s involvement in narcotics – – a history of about two decades – – wouldn’t have ever resurfaced again if he had never desire to be president. For instance: A recent gauzy Financial Times profile of Tinubu cautiously neglected to mention that Tinubu was identified as a bagman for two Nigerian drug barons, who operated out of Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. This case has been bandied around the Nigerian press for years but a few Nigerians have dug into it.
Sunday O. Oladepo is a multimedia journalist and PR professional. He tweets via @sunnexbobo1
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