The original thread on this has been completely rewritten after researching the details on when I uncovered enough information on just how unique of a political lolcow this guy is (Nigerian Style). And there will be more forthcoming.
Early Life
Bola stated he was born on March 29th, 1952. His mother, Abibatu Mogaji was a well-known trader in Lagos State. She held the title of Iyaloja General of Nigeria until her death at the age of 94. His date of birth from his transcript at Chicago State University has listed 1954 as his year of birth. This discrepancy was also the subject of an investigation by the Lagos State House of Assembly following a petition filed by Jameed Seriki and Waliu Balogun-Smith.
Tinubu's claim of Lagos being his place of birth was also viewed with suspicion. Bode George, a former deputy national chairman of the opposition PDP insisted Bola was actually from Iragbiji in Osun State. However, he did not provide any evidence to back this up. Bola left Nigeria in 1975 with a friend. After his arrival in the USA, he stayed briefly in Washington DC, Virginia, then finally settled down in Chicago. He enrolled at Richard Daley College (a community college in Chicago) in September 1975. From there he was admitted to Chicago State University in 1977 to study Business and Administration, major in accounting. This has been confirmed by the school.
Bola was a roommate to Tunde Badejo who is one of the major shareholders in Alpha Beta Consulting. Bola was also elected president of the accounting students at the institution and worked as a student tutor. Before he graduated in 1979 from Chicago State, he was recruited by Deloitte, Haskins and Sells and joined based on the advice of the Dean of his faculty. He advised Bola that Deloitte, Haskins, and Sells had a number of clients in the oil sector and given Nigeria's status as a major oil producer, this would offer a better career path. From Deloitte, he moved to General Telephone and Electronic (GTE) where he worked as Assistant Manager.
In 1986, he joined Mobil at the Corporate Audit Department in the UK and served as a corporate auditor and was assigned to audit Mobil Nigeria during this period. He was offered the role of Auditor in Nigeria and moved from Mobil UK to Mobil Nigeria and rose through the ranks in the oil firm to become its treasurer. It was during his time at Mobil that he started relating with members of the Primerose Group led by Dapo Sarumi (Primerose Group is a Nigerian Real Development and Investment Company headquarted in Lagos).
Political Arena
In 1992, he resigned from his Mobil Nigeria position to get involved in the political arena and joined in with Umaru Musa Ya'Adua who was the leader of the People's Front. This organization was founded by his elder brother Shehu Musa Yar'Adua in 1988 during General Ibrahim Babangida's transition program from military to civilian rule. This group later merged with other political associations to become the Social Democratic Party.
Drug Trafficking Involvement
So how was Bola involved in heroin distribution? Well, its kind of complicated and involves a prosperous entrepreneur in the heroin trade by the name of Lee Andrew Edwards who was sentenced to federal prison and has since passed away in 2003.
On October 11, 1990, federal agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) knocked on the front door of 460 Taft Place in Gary Indiana. Gray was one of several rust belt towns in the 1960s that had suffered a population and economic decline by the 1990s. Gary Indiana had a population that was 77% African-American. However, Lee Andrew Edwards had found his place in the illegal booming heroin trade in this area. His drug proceeds from 100 pounds of heroin had enabled him to purchase 2 residential homes (including 460 Taft place, an apartment building, a liquor store, and a new car all paid for with cash.
A search warrant was executed after seven month FBI investigation according to court records (Court Case: United States vs. Edwards). Edwards's brother Kimmie was implicated as the narcotics kingpin of Gary. Edwards did not open the door for the agents who resorted to breaking down the door in order to enter. Edwards fired 3 shots at them, and then surrendered. Inside the compound, agents found a carbine rifle, thousands of dollars in cash, drug prepping equipment including a triple-beam scale, and several grams of cocaine and heroin powder in the house. He was later sentenced to life in prison.
Federal investigators had traced that Edwards's heroin supply came from a Nigerian drug dealer in Chicago by the name of Abiodun Agbele. He had agreed earlier to work for the feds in exchange for lighter sentencing as part of the plea deal and spilled the beans on everything he knew about how the heroin trade worked in Chicago. At the time, Chicago was a key trafficking hub in the American heroin trade. The heroin being trafficked was a very high quality heroin from Southeast Asia which was controlled in Chicago by Nigerian criminal gangs.
The following excerpt was taken from the January 2001 Illinois Drug Threat Assessment published by the National Drug Intelligence Center
“Nigerian criminal groups are responsible for wholesale distribution of most of the SEA heroin shipped into Chicago. SEA heroin, which is 80-90 percent pure, is being sold by Nigerian traffickers for $80,000-$110,000 per kilogram. Wholesalers in Chicago usually sell heroin without cutting it to minimize their handling of the product and their exposure to law enforcement.”
However, Abiodun Agbele wasn't really the big kingpin behind this lucrative business. That title goes to Adegboyega Mueez Akande who was Abiodun's uncle (and close associate of Bola Tinubu). Shortly after Agbele's arrival in the United States, Uncle Akande took him under his wing and mentored him in the business of wholesale heroin trafficking. When Akande returned to Nigeria in the mid-1990, Agbele was left in charge of selling regular heroin shipments from Nigeria to Lee Edwards and delivering the profits to his uncle.
Effects of the Nigerian Heroin Trade
Meanwhile, the Nigerian-led heroin trade had a major impact on changing policy towards the drug addiction epidemic in light of the HIV epidemic that was also spreading throughout the USA. As I mentioned the heroin what was being sold by the Nigerian drug traffickers was of very high quality (80 to 90% pure) and was causing an epidemic in Chicago history that was unlike anything they had ever encountered. For the first time, providing addicts with free access to safe syringes and needles to ensure that they did not share them and spawn another massive epidemic of HIV in the Chicago area.
Compass Finance & Investment Company
Now while all this was going on, there was another little subplot going on. An accountant living in the Chicago area who worked for Mobil Oil Nigeria with a declared monthly income of $2,400 had just deposited over $1.4 million in the bank. He had no known source of income apart from his day job, but he had become friends with Akande and Agbele and discovered drug dealers need accountants to help manage their money just like other people. Soon Tinubu would find himself holding and wiring money on behalf of a Nigerian heroin gang in Chicago. Adegboyega Mueez Akande was also the brother-in-law to Tinubu’s wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu.
A shell company was set up to help move the drug funds. Tinubu provided corporate documents for Compass Finance and Investment Co. when he opened corporate accounts in the U.S. Mueez Adegboyega Akande and Abiodun Olasuyi Abele were listed as directors for this company. In addition, there was also a separate entity incorporated in Nigerian that was also used to move drug money. The accounts held funds that were of interest to the FBI because they were being deposited by Individuals also being investigated for drug offenses. It was in the 1990.
More Connections in Nigerian Politics
Abiodun Agbele our little entrepreneur who was taken under his uncle's wing was also an associate of another bigwig Nigerian politician (former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose). Agbele was charged in Nigeria by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with money laundering. The EFCC accused Agbele of helping to receive and disburse N1.2 billion in cash on behalf of Fayose's election campaign during the 2014 Ekiti State gubernatorial election. The case was dismissed after an eight-year trial, a Federal High Court ruled in June 2024 that Agbele had no case to answer and acquitted him of all 24 charges. In July 2024, the EFCC filed a notice of appeal to challenge the court's ruling.
https://davidhundeyin.substack.com/p/bola-ahmed-tinubu-from-drug-lord
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news...r-becomes-nigerias-president-16th-leader.html
https://www.google.com/search?q=Mr.+Ya'Adua+the+People's+Front&oq=Mr.+Ya'Adua+the+People's+Front&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRiPAtIBCTIwNDg3ajBqN6gCCLACAfEFgfFKmWgNlvg&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
https://www.google.com/search?q=Abi...yXiu82vEFMsT9cl4rvNo&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Last edited:
