The Presidential Election Tribunal has ruled that the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi failed to prove that President Bola Tinubu was convicted of drug trafficking in the United States.
In 1993, President Tinubu forfeited $460,000 to the US government after a Chicago court determined that the money was the proceeds of heroin trafficking.
This forfeiture agreement was one of the arguments put forth by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the LP, who finished in second and third place, respectively, in the presidential contest.
However, the tribunal ruled that both PDP and LP failed to provide sufficient evidence to support their claim that President Tinubu should have been disqualified from contesting the 2023 election due to a forfeiture agreement.
Justice Haruna Tsammani, delivering the lead judgment, explained that the evidence presented by the petitioners, particularly Exhibit P5, indicated that it was a civil forfeiture case.
He emphasized that the petitioners failed to provide credible evidence to demonstrate that Tinubu had been arraigned, pleaded guilty, sentenced, or fined in any criminal case in the United States.
“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.
“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,” Justice Tsammani stated.
KanyiDaily recalls that the Presidential Election Tribunal also announced that it rejected the testimony of 10 out of the 13 witnesses presented by Peter Obi.
