Search interest in Tinubu outstrips Musk on money laundering exposé

A series of lawsuits filed in 1993 by the United States government against Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on his connection to drug dealers, has received more interest globally than lawsuits against Elon Musk and Tesla.

PlainSite, a non-profit global website dedicated to legal data transparency advocacy, told BusinessDay that it saw a spike of about five times its normal traffic on Saturday, 16 July, due to the Tinubu “story.”

The “story” is in reference to an investigative article written by David Hundeyin, a Nigerian journalist, on the drug past of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress. The story titled ‘Bola Ahmed Tinubu: From drug Lord to presidential Candidate’ traces how the candidate got involved with drug dealers who leveraged his academic background as an accountant to launder their proceeds of crime.

Read also: Of Osun’s election, Tinubu’s invincibility, and other matters: Five things you should know

The story, citing court documents, noted that Tinubu was accused of handling and laundering proceeds of heroin trafficking for a Nigerian drug ring in Chicago. The US investigators later obtained a court order to freeze Tinubu’s bank accounts containing the suspected proceeds of heroin trafficking in excess of $1.4 million. On September 15, 1993, Tinubu entered a settlement with the US government agreeing to forfeit $460,000 of the heroin trafficking proceeds to the US government.

Following the release of the story on West Africa Weekly, the internet went agog with many Twitter Spaces dedicated to discussing the story. PlainSite said it witnessed over 22,000 page views, with 17,580 of that traffic coming from searchers in Nigeria in one day alone.

“We saw a spike of about 5X our normal traffic on Saturday, July 16th due to the Tinubu story. In the past, we have published research reports on large U.S. corporations, including Tesla, Inc., so there has been considerable interest in lawsuits regarding Elon Musk and Tesla,” a spokesperson for the non-profit organisation told BusinessDay.