The presidential flag-bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC – Bola Tinubu – has said he would sue some media organisations for character assassination.
Tinubu accused the media organisations of deploying the spread of fake news to assassinate his character over an alleged drug trafficking case previously treated in the United States.
In a Facebook statement released Saturday, Bayo Onanuga – director of media and publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Council – said a suit would be filed over the case “sooner than later.”
His statement follows the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) denial of investigating a criminal case against Tinubu.
Onanuga accused media organisations of being paid by the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Labour Party, LP – Abubakar Atiku and Peter Obi – to spread fake news against Tinubu.
“All those people spreading fake news and assassinating the character of Asiwaju Tinubu will meet us in court sooner than later,” his statement reads.
“You have all thrown professionalism and objectivity to Jabi Lake because you are playing the script of your master puppeteers, Atiku and Peter Obi. The height of your shenanigans today was the wide use of a fake INEC statement.”
Last week documents circulated online detailing a forfeiture of money, via the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, purported to be linked to alleged drug trafficking by Tinubu.
But the documents did not show that Tinubu was put on trial or that he had dealings with drug trafficking rings.
The documents also showed the case was concluded about 30 years ago.
The matter, according to the report, resulted in Tinubu’s forfeiture of $460,000 in one of the 10 accounts linked to him.
Tinubu’s campaign also explained that the forfeiture was for income taxes the former Lagos governor did not pay.
