Mr. Reno Omokri, former presidential aide, has said he was wrong to describe President Bola Tinubu as a “drug lord”.
The flippant self-acclaimed pastor noted that he made the claim out of ignorance and without conducting proper investigation into the allegations against the President.
The ambassador-designate to Mexico said he later travelled personally to the United States to investigate the claims and found no evidence supporting the allegation that Tinubu was involved in drug trafficking.
He disclosed this during an interview with Channels Television on Sunday.
He said he initially believed reports questioning Tinubu’s academic credentials and linking him to drug trafficking.
“I honestly believed what the media reported. Like most Nigerians, probably you who believe me, but I did something that no other Nigerian did. I went to Chicago,” he said.
Omokri said he arrived in Chicago on September 18, 2022, and visited Chicago State University the following day to establish the facts surrounding Tinubu’s educational background.
According to him, officials of the university provided him with documentary and photographic evidence, as well as newspaper clippings, confirming that Tinubu attended the institution.
“They gave me documentary evidence, photographic evidence, newspaper clippings, and then they have a hall where the president is there because the president is an alumnus,” he said.
He said the evidence he obtained during the visit compelled him to publicly change his position despite the political consequences.
“Right there in Chicago, I came out, even though it was against my own political best interest, and I said, ‘Look, it is not true,’” he said.
While speaking further, Omokri said he also examined US records relating to Tinubu and found no criminal arrest record or outstanding warrant against him following a check conducted in 2003.
“The results of the checks were negative for any criminal arrest records, once, or warrant, for Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he said.
He further argued that Tinubu was not the subject of the investigation referenced in the US records.
“There was an investigation. Bola Ahmed Tinubu was not the subject of the investigation. The President was not the person that was being investigated,” Mr Omokri said.
He said part of the controversy surrounding Tinubu stemmed from a 1993 US civil forfeiture proceeding involving about $460,000 linked to accounts associated with the President.
According to him, the money was forfeited to the US government in a case connected to a wider investigation into heroin trafficking.
He stressed that the proceeding was a civil forfeiture case and did not amount to a criminal conviction of Tinubu.
He said despite his decision to withdraw his earlier description of Tinubu as a “drug lord”, the forfeiture case could still be raised by the President’s political opponents during the 2027 election campaign.
