Former presidential aide Reno Omokri has made a major U turn on a serious allegation he previously made against President Bola Tinubu.
Reno Omokri, a former presidential aide now nominated as ambassador to Mexico, has admitted he was wrong when he called President Tinubu a drug lord, saying his investigations found no evidence to support the claim.
Omokri said he travelled to Chicago in September 2022 to independently check reports about Tinubus academic background and alleged links to drug trafficking.
He arrived believing what the media had reported, but went further than most Nigerians by actually investigating.
At Chicago State University, officials gave him documents, photographs and newspaper clippings proving Tinubu attended the school. Government
He also checked US records and found no criminal arrest record or outstanding warrant against the president. A 2003 background check came back negative for any criminal activity.
Omokri said there was a 1993 civil forfeiture case involving about 460,000 dollars linked to accounts associated with Tinubu, but the president was not the subject of the investigation.
The money was forfeited in a case connected to a wider heroin trafficking probe, but it was a civil matter, not a criminal conviction of Tinubu.
Despite his findings, Omokri said these records could still be used against Tinubu by political opponents during the 2027 campaign.
He publicly changed his position after his Chicago trip, even though it went against his political interests at the time.
Omokri also investigated similar drug trafficking allegations against opposition politician Peter Obi.
He travelled to Peru, interviewed officials there and concluded that Obi was innocent with nothing to the claims.