By Passman Akpos
Abuja — Former presidential aide and public commentator, Bemigho Reno Omokri, has issued a detailed public statement responding to claims made against him by activist and former presidential candidate Mr Omoyele Sowore, through his lawyer, Mr Abubakar Marshal, during court proceedings held on Tuesday, January 27, 2026.
In the statement, Omokri acknowledged that he had previously made uncomplimentary remarks about then–All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, during the 2022–2023 election period. He said those remarks were made in good faith, based on information he believed to be accurate at the time.
However, Omokri stated that he later discovered the claims were false and took multiple steps to publicly withdraw them. According to him, these withdrawals were made both in writing and on video, across several platforms, beginning in 2023.
He recalled that on May 29, 2023, the day President Tinubu was sworn in, he released a statement recognising Tinubu as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and urged Nigerians to move past the election season and support the new administration. He said this position was reaffirmed on October 26, 2023, following the Supreme Court’s dismissal of petitions challenging the President’s election.
Omokri noted that the Supreme Court judgment explicitly stated that there were no criminal charges or convictions against President Tinubu, clarifying issues that had previously been misrepresented in sections of the media. He said he accepted and applauded the ruling immediately, describing the allegations he had earlier repeated as “wrong” and “fallacious.”
Further outlining his public reversals, Omokri referenced a TVC interview on October 28, 2023, in which he described the Supreme Court verdict as righteous and praised the Justices for adhering to the rule of law. He also cited a News Central Television interview on March 27, 2025, where he stated that President Tinubu had been “exonerated,” explaining that he deliberately used the term in its strict legal sense.
On June 11, 2025, Omokri said he appeared on Politics Today, Nigeria’s most-watched political programme, where he publicly admitted that his earlier statements were wrong and based on false media publications. He specifically named SaharaReporters and statements attributed to Mr Sowore as sources of the misinformation he relied upon at the time.
The former aide further disclosed that on October 1, 2024, he travelled from his residence in California to Nigeria to seek a private audience with President Tinubu, during which he personally apologised for his past remarks, stating that they were not made out of malice but under a mistaken belief fueled by inaccurate media reports.
Addressing the legal dimensions of the ongoing dispute, Omokri argued that it is ultra vires and contrary to the rule against hearsay for Mr Sowore to rely on statements that had already been publicly withdrawn. He cited Phipson on Evidence and the Privy Council decision in Teper v. R, noting that former statements cannot be tendered as proof of the truth of matters asserted once they have been retracted.
He maintained that Mr Sowore cannot lawfully rely on remarks made between 2022 and 2023, which were withdrawn in 2023, to justify statements made in August 2025, particularly when, according to him, those allegations originated from Mr Sowore and his platform more than a decade earlier.
Omokri concluded by once again affirming that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu “is not, has never been, and will never be a drug lord,” describing the President as a person of good character and high moral standing. He said he made the statement voluntarily and expressed readiness to testify under oath, with documentary and time stamped evidence, in any court of law.
The statement adds another layer to the legal and political dispute involving prominent public figures, as the matter continues to draw national attention.
