If allegations examined during an investigation involving Atiku cannot be converted into a criminal conviction against Atiku, an in rem civil forfeiture proceeding cannot logically be converted into a criminal conviction against Tinubu. In each case, the responsible legal inquiry must be the same: Was the individual criminally charged? Was he prosecuted? Was he tried? Was a judgment of criminal conviction entered against him? Otherwise, political rhetoric cannot substitute for those questions.
The continuing attempt by some political opponents of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to portray the 1993 civil forfeiture proceedings in the United States as proof that he was prosecuted and convicted of a criminal offence is, in my view, legally frivolous and morally unscrupulous.
It is also particularly difficult to reconcile with the position often taken by the same political actors when discussing former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the criminal investigation and prosecution of former United States Congressman William Jefferson. As a lawyer trained, practising in both the United States and Nigeria, I believe that political disagreements, however intense, should not be allowed to obliterate settled distinctions between allegation, investigation, civil proceedings, criminal prosecution, and criminal conviction.
These expressions are not interchangeable. Each has a distinct legal meaning and carries different consequences. Although the relevant documents concerning President Tinubu pre-date the introduction and widespread use of the US federal courts’ PACER electronic filing system by many years, I have reviewed the court records and dockets presently available.
Based on that review, I have found no record showing that President Tinubu was criminally prosecuted, tried or convicted of an offence in the United States. What exists and what has repeatedly been relied upon by his opponents, is the 1993 forfeiture proceeding in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. That distinction is fundamental.