Former presidential aide and ambassador-designate, Reno Omokri, has admitted that he was wrong to describe President Bola Tinubu as a “drug lord”.
It was reported that Omokri said his own investigation in the United States did not support the allegation.
He made the disclosure while appearing on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
Omokri explained that he had travelled to Chicago in September 2022 to independently investigate claims surrounding Tinubu’s academic background and alleged involvement in drug-related activities.
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According to him, he initially accepted reports questioning Tinubu’s academic credentials and linking him to drug trafficking.
However, he decided to travel to the United States to verify the claims for himself.
Omokri said he arrived in Chicago on September 18, 2022, and visited Chicago State University the following day.
He said officials at the institution provided him with documents, photographs and newspaper materials showing that Tinubu attended the university.
He revealed that the information he obtained during the visit changed his position and led him to publicly withdraw his earlier claims, despite the possible political consequences of doing so.
He said: “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.
“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.
“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.
“The results of the checks were negative for any criminal arrest records, once, or warrant, for Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“There was an investigation. Bola Ahmed Tinubu was not the subject of the investigation. The president was not the person that was being investigated.
“The money was forfeited to the US government in a case connected to a wider investigation into heroin trafficking. The proceeding was a civil forfeiture case rather than a criminal conviction of Mr Tinubu.”