Former presidential aide and ambassador-designate, Reno Omokri, has said activist and Sahara Reporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, cannot depend on his past comments about President Bola Tinubu in his ongoing cybercrime case.
Omokri made this known in a statement he shared on his social media page and also sent to journalists on Wednesday.
He was reacting to events that happened at the Federal High Court in Abuja during Sowore’s trial on Tuesday.
During the court session, Sowore’s legal team presented video clips as part of their defence.
One of the videos showed Omokri during a 2023 television interview, where he claimed he had documents linking Tinubu to drug-related issues in the United States.
After the video was played in court, Omokri explained that the statements were made during the heat of the 2022 and 2023 election period.
According to him, he spoke at the time believing the information he had was correct, but later found out it was not true.
He said once he realized the claims were false, he publicly withdrew them.
He explained that he did this through written statements and recorded videos shared on different platforms.
Omokri added that on the day Tinubu was sworn in as president on May 29, 2023, he openly accepted him as Nigeria’s leader and called on citizens to support the new government.
He said he repeated the same position months later, after the Supreme Court dismissed all cases challenging Tinubu’s election.
He recalled that the apex court made it clear that there were no criminal charges or convictions against the president.
Following that judgement, he said he admitted that his earlier claims were wrong and based on incorrect information.
He also mentioned that he later appeared on several television programmes where he apologized for relying on media reports when making those statements.
According to him, he even met President Tinubu privately in October 2024 and personally expressed regret over his past remarks.
Reacting to the decision to use those old videos in court, Omokri said both Nigerian law and common law do not allow withdrawn statements to be used to prove fresh allegations.
He explained that once a claim has been publicly taken back, it cannot be treated as evidence of truth later.
He maintained that President Tinubu is not, and has never been, a drug lord.
He added that he is willing to testify under oath and present documents to support his current position.
The case involving Sowore is linked to two social media posts he made in August 2025, where he described the president as a criminal.
The federal government later charged him with cybercrime, saying the posts could damage the president’s image and cause public unrest.
During Tuesday’s hearing, the court accepted the video clips showing Omokri’s past comments, despite objections from the prosecution.
The judge ruled that the materials should be admitted and adjourned the matter to early February for further hearing.
Omokri was confirmed by the Senate in December 2025 as one of President Tinubu’s ambassadorial nominees, even though he had openly opposed him in the past.
His earlier remarks were linked to documents from a 1993 civil forfeiture case in the United States, which had remained a topic of political debate for years.
However, after the Supreme Court ruling in October 2023 cleared Tinubu of any criminal record, Omokri said he completely withdrew his claims and offered apologies publicly.
0 Comments
DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed on this platform as comments were freely made by each person under his or her own volition or responsibility and were neither suggested nor dictated by the owners of News PLATFORM or any of their contracted staff. So we take no liability whatsoever for such comments.
Please take note!