Atiku records case holds today after money laundering arraignment of Jelila Adekunle, who lived on Tinubu’s block in Chicago

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Texas

The much-awaited hearing of Atiku Abubakar’s subpoena request for President Bola Tinubu’s records from Chicago State University (CSU) is scheduled for Tuesday at a U.S. court following the arraignment of Jelila Adekunle, another Nigerian criminal, for alleged money laundering, and who stayed in the same neighbourhood as Mr Tinubu when he was based in the U.S.

A glance at the Tuesday motion schedule of the U.S. Court for the Northern District of Illinois showed that Judge Jeffrey Gilbert must first oversee the arraignment of Ms Adekunle, of Nigerian descent, whom the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) accused of wire fraud and listed her address to be in South Shore Drive but withheld her house number.  

Ms Adekunle’s neighbourhood address appeared to match Mr Tinubu’s address when he stayed in Chicago in the ’90s, according to the certified true copies of his narcotics encounter with the American government. His address was given as 7424 South Shore Drive.

Aviation minister, Festus Keyamo, confirmed in 2022 that the president resided in a neighborhood known for housing notorious drug criminals while based in the United States.

Ms Adekunle, 35, was first charged in March 2023 and has since been held in detention for allegedly moving money for illegal activities. According to the FBI, the suspect “was involved in laundering money through currency exchanges and bank accounts,” using fictitious names of individuals and businesses, “which she opened and controlled using false identification,” that included fake Nigerian and Kenyan passports.

FBI nailed Ms Adekunle after converting one of her allies to an informant who ratted her out to the security agency in exchange for a lighter sentence.

Ms Adekunle is protesting her release from detention ahead of her trial and will be appearing before Judge Gilbert at 11:00 a.m. local time.

Ms Adekunle, whose alias was Linda Williams, operated a business she called ‘JJ Empress ROYAL’S EMPORIUM’ and claimed to sell trendy male and female wears, including abayas — a long overflowing garment mostly worn by Muslim women.

Records seen by Peoples Gazette said Ms Adekunle was in prison for a different conviction that terminated in 2021.

Immediately after Mr Gilbert hears Ms Adekunle’s application for release pending trial, Mr Abubakar’s request to order direct discovery for Mr Tinubu’s records was set to be heard at 2:30 p.m. Chicago time.

Charles Carmichael and Oluwole Afolabi are the attorneys representing Mr Tinubu while Angela Liu will appear for Mr Abubakar, who plans to present the CSU records at the Supreme Court, where he intends to appeal the judgement that upheld Mr Tinubu’s election victory.

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