Claim: A post by ADC Vanguard alleges that Reno Omokri was spotted at the Nigerian Embassy in London demanding Tinubu’s arrest over drug trafficking, with photos showing him holding placards during a protest. Verdict: Misleading Full Text On 19th March on X, a page known as ADC Vanguard posted that Reno Omokri was seen protesting
Claim: A post by ADC Vanguard alleges that Reno Omokri was spotted at the Nigerian Embassy in London demanding Tinubu’s arrest over drug trafficking, with photos showing him holding placards during a protest.
Verdict: Misleading
Full Text
On 19th March on X, a page known as ADC Vanguard posted that Reno Omokri was seen protesting at the Nigerian embassy, demanding the arrest of Bola Ahmed Tinubu over drug trafficking.
The tweet was quoted, “BREAKING: Ambassador Reno Omokrii spotted at the Nigerian
Embassy in London demanding the arrest of Bola Tinubu over allegations of drug trafficking.”
Reno is an ambassador-designate of Nigeria to Mexico, appointed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He was a former presidential spokesperson to Goodluck Jonathan, known for his vitriolic criticism of President Tinubu.
Early this week, President Tinubu embarked on a state visit to the United Kingdom, which is said to be the first since the return of democracy in 1999 that a democratically elected Nigerian head of state has been afforded this honour by the British monarchy.
The post has gathered traction, as at the time of writing this report, there had been 96 comments, 1.7k retweets, 4.1k likes and 234k views.
NDRFactCheck chose to investigate the claim since ADC Vanguard’s post included serious accusations concerning the current Nigerian president by an ambassador-designate. If these allegations were untrue, they had the potential to misinform the public and harm reputations.
Verification
NDRFactcheck investigations revealed that the pictures were from a protest Reno Omokri led on 5th December 2022, when Bola Ahmed Tinubu was then the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He had gone to Chatham House in London to speak on security, economy, and foreign policy ahead of the 2023 elections.
The incident happened outside Chatham House, not at the Nigerian Embassy. This was reported by Daily Trust. Omokri was seen holding a placard with that inscription, “Tinubu, drugs; Tinubu, heroin.”
Conclusion
The images used by ADC Vanguard are from a 2022 protest in London, not a recent protest at the Nigerian Embassy, and they were taken out of context to support a false narrative.
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