Fans of Nigeria’s president-elect have taken to Twitter to express their outrage after UBerFacts, a credible fact-checking platform, exposed Bola Tinubu’s legal troubles with US authorities, which saw him pay $460,000 in ill-gotten proceeds from cocaine trafficking to the US government in 1993.
“In 1993, Bola Ahmed Tinubu surrendered $460,000 to the US government after a Chicago court found the income came from heroin trafficking,” UberFacts shared with its 13.5 million global audience at midnight on Monday. The platform attached an article from Peoples Gazette that detailed Mr Tinubu’s criminal run-in with the foreign authorities.
The matter has irritated Mr Tinubu’s team, as high-ranking members of his campaign team have remained silent — presumably deciding how best to respond and counter the post — while lower-level supporters have unleashed vitriol on UberFacts’s Twitter account in an attempt to ridicule and discredit the platform.
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The usual surrogates – Bayo Onanuga, Festus Keyamo, Femi Fani-Kayode, and Dele Alake – who are quick to jump at the slightest criticism of their principal have all so far kept studied silence, likely strategizing to counter UberFacts, as they did when celebrated Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie asked US President Joe Biden not to congratulate Mr Tinubu on his questionable election victory last week.
“@uberfacts is actually @uberlies,” tweeted @KemPatriot, an APC loyalist. “If you have ever relied on @UberFacts for facts, it’s time to unfollow them, they are a pay per post organisation, who post lies for th (sic) highest bidder.”
Another Trump supporter said UberFacts was a propaganda site, despite the fact that The Gazette had published the complete court records.
“We know the mandators and propagandists that convulse on mendacious innuendoes. They are free to bring same as evidence to court. Make I take Uber go check inauguration venue again self, @AdeHardemola quipped. “Awa ti se orire lati ana.”
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@Zdenowo claimed the platform published Mr Tinubu’s drug case to gain relevance online.
“They know their audience. They needed the attention of the headless mob to revive their already dead page. I didn’t even bother reading the story because I know their game plan. Yeye people,” they tweeted.
“Yeye people” means unserious people in the Yoruba language.
Despite the fact that certified authentic copies of his money forfeiture are already in the public domain, Mr Tinubu argues that when he declared his presidential ambition with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) last year, he had no criminal record.
Throughout his campaign, the president-elect avoided discussing his disturbing criminal past, and his supporters scorn anyone or any group who brings it up.
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“Nonsense. That is my reaction,” Mr Onanuga told The Gazette Monday afternoon. “They keep recycling this matter. Who is Uber! Who is Uber! Please don’t spoil my day,” he stressed as he dismissed the matter.
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