Senator Neda Imasuen
Senator Neda Imasuen has launched a fierce defence of his integrity, dismissing allegations linking him to fraud, bank robbery and an alleged FBI investigation in the United States as a calculated political smear campaign orchestrated to destroy his reputation.
In a strongly worded rebuttal dated July 10 and addressed to the African Achievers Awards Organisation in London, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions insisted he has never been declared wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or any law enforcement agency anywhere in the world.
The Edo South lawmaker said reports portraying him as an FBI fugitive and a suspect in a purported $25 million fraud scheme were “false, malicious and politically motivated,” stressing that no indictment, criminal complaint or investigative document has ever identified him as a suspect.
“I have never been declared a fugitive by any court or law enforcement agency in the United States or elsewhere,” Imasuen stated, adding that he continues to travel freely between Nigeria and the United States without restriction.
He also dismissed claims that he masterminded a bank robbery before relocating to Nigeria to pursue politics, describing the allegation as “entirely fictitious” and “absurd.”
According to him, those behind the campaign even circulated a photograph of another individual in handcuffs and falsely claimed it showed his arrest by the FBI, accusing them of deliberately manipulating public opinion through fabricated evidence.
Seeking to reinforce his defence, Imasuen revealed that he still owns a home in Laurelton, Queens, New York, where he previously lived and worked. He said he receives retirement pension and Social Security benefits in the United States and travels there regularly, including for annual medical examinations, arguing that such ties are incompatible with claims that he is barred from entering the country.
On the controversy surrounding his legal career in the United States, the senator acknowledged that disciplinary proceedings were instituted against him while he was practising law but maintained that they were purely regulatory and never involved criminal allegations such as fraud, theft or embezzlement.
He explained that he was in Nigeria for his late brother’s funeral when the proceedings took place and chose not to contest the outcome because he had already decided to pursue an international appointment with the European Union.
Imasuen said political opponents have deliberately twisted those events into a false narrative of criminal misconduct.
In a move aimed at further vindicating himself, the senator disclosed that he has instructed lawyers in New York to begin the process of restoring his licence to practise law.
He also suggested that the allegations surfaced only after his committee presided over disciplinary proceedings involving a serving senator, describing the timing as suspicious and indicative of a coordinated attempt to intimidate him and undermine the Senate Ethics Committee.
Insisting that he has never been convicted of any criminal offence in the United States or any other country, Imasuen urged Nigerians to reject what he described as a campaign of misinformation and character assassination.
He called on the public to judge him based on verifiable court records and official facts rather than unverified claims circulating on social media.