Tinubu and Atiku: Why the Jefferson case exposes the fallacy of treating civil forfeiture as a criminal conviction, By Kayode Oladele
They mean something more precise and relevant to the present debate: a civil forfeiture proceeding cannot simply be renamed a criminal prosecution or conviction because doing so suits a political narrative.
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.
If we accept, correctly, that Atiku did not become a convicted criminal merely because his name arose in circumstances investigated in connection with Jefferson, then elementary fairness demands that we also acknowledge that an in rem civil forfeiture involving property associated with Tinubu did not transform itself into a criminal investigation and or conviction against Tinubu.
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