A U.S. court has ordered Dumebi Kachikwu to pay $2.1 million in a tax fraud case, as his alleged role in undermining the anti-Tinubu coalition draws scrutiny.
A U.S. federal court has ordered Nigerian politician Dumebi Kachikwu to pay $2.1 million in a tax fraud case, The Peoples Gazette reports. The final judgment was delivered in January 2023 by Judge George Jarrod Hazel of the U.S. District Court in Maryland.
The case, which also involved his wife Somachi, follows the 2022 seizure of Kachikwu’s assets. It resurfaces as he mounts a media campaign against a new opposition coalition that has adopted the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to challenge President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
Despite claiming ownership of the ADC platform, The Gazette found that Kachikwu was not part of the party’s national executive. His 2023 emergence as ADC presidential candidate was seen as an effort to destabilize the party from within.
Kachikwu has long been linked to pro-Tinubu interests and previously featured in a bribery scandal involving jailed U.S. congressman William Jefferson. He now frequently appears on TVC, a station linked to Tinubu, to criticize the opposition.