Festus Keyamo, a spokesperson for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, says he is happy President-elect Bola Tinubu’s drug-related case in the United States would be heard in Nigeria’s court.

In a tweet he posted on Monday via his verified account, Mr Keyamo stated that the hearing would set aside the difference between dispassionate adjudication of issues and stop the propaganda against Mr Tinubu’s shady past.

Mr Keyamo said he was confident that the court would favour Mr Tinubu.

“I am excited about the issues raised in those election petitions. All the deceit and lies and disinformation and misinformation about otherwise very simple and clear issues are about to be busted by our Law Lords. Whoever continues to argue after that should relocate to another planet,” stated Mr Keyamo.

The APC campaign spokesman added, “Nigerians will finally see the huge difference between calm, dispassionate adjudication of issues and all the hoopla caused by garrulous spokespersons shaking and falling on stage. Ignorant TV hosts turned debaters, misinformed documentaries, illiterate tweeps and some dancing Hijabi mamas.”

Last November, Mr Keyamo claimed that Mr Tinubu, the party’s flag bearer, only shared a “block of flats” with notorious cocaine dealers in Chicago, pushing back after the release of court documents that suggested Mr Tinubu’s ties to illicit drug business and money laundering in the United States. 

“What happened was that Asiwaju (Bola Tinubu) went to open an account. The address which he used in opening the account was the address used by these people…(sic). I think some blocks of flats. Maybe, he happened to be in that block of flats too,” Mr Keyamo had said to defend his principal. “So, they now link it that the other people they were investigating for narcotics are in the same address used by Asiwaju to open that account.”

Peoples Gazette published certified copies of the 1993 case recently released by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The documents confirmed that the U.S. government had in July 1993 sought forfeiture of proceeds of narcotics Mr Tinubu was accused of laundering. 

The matter was resolved in a compromise between the Tinubus and the U.S. authorities, with the Tinubus being asked to keep the money in the Heritage Bank account while the $460,000 in the Citibank account was forfeited.