A former member of the House of Representatives, Kayode Oladele, has urged opposition leaders to stop seeking legal remedies in the United States and instead challenge President Bola Tinubu through Nigeria’s political and legal processes.

Oladele, a Nigerian-American lawyer, said the route to the presidency was through Nigerian voters and not American courtrooms, dismissing claims that Tinubu had been criminally convicted in the United States.

He said he had examined available federal court records and found no record showing that Tinubu had been criminally charged, prosecuted or convicted of any offence in the US.

“I really don’t know who their lawyers are or what legal advice they are receiving, but there should be an end to this legal tourism against President Tinubu. You cannot manufacture a criminal conviction where none exists,” Oladele said.

The former Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Crimes said the 1993 US case frequently cited by Tinubu’s opponents was a civil forfeiture proceeding involving property and should not be described as a criminal prosecution or conviction.

He stressed that civil forfeiture and criminal conviction were legally distinct, arguing that political claims could not change that distinction.

“An allegation is not a conviction. An investigation is not a conviction. A civil forfeiture proceeding is not, by itself, a criminal conviction,” he said.

Oladele noted that the forfeiture issue had previously featured in legal challenges arising from the 2023 presidential election without resulting in Tinubu’s disqualification.

He described renewed attempts to search US courts and government archives for material that could create a legal obstacle to Tinubu’s re-election as a “wild goose chase”.

The former lawmaker urged opposition politicians to focus instead on Tinubu’s policies and performance and present their case directly to Nigerian voters ahead of the 2027 presidential election.