Omokri to Sowore: My Past “Drug Lord” Comments on Tinubu Were Withdrawn, Cannot Be Used in Your Defense

Reno Omokri, an ambassador-designate and former spokesperson for ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has stated that activist and publisher Omoyele Sowore cannot rely on his past controversial remarks about President Bola Tinubu as a defense in Sowore’s ongoing cybercrime trial.

Sowore is being prosecuted by the Department of State Services (DSS) over an August 2025 post on X (formerly Twitter) in which he described President Tinubu as a “criminal.”

During Tuesday’s court session, Sowore’s lawyer, Marshal Abubakar, presented video evidence showing Omokri in a 2023 interview on ARISE TV claiming he had documents proving Tinubu was a “drug lord.” In the footage, Omokri declared, “Bola Tinubu is a known drug lord. I’ve got documents to back it up.”

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Omokri acknowledged making those comments but said he had since publicly and repeatedly withdrawn them after realizing they were untrue.

“I do freely admit that I did make uncomplimentary remarks about the then Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, while believing those comments to be true at the time I uttered them,” Omokri said. “Subsequent to making those statements, I discovered that they were not, in fact, true, and I publicly withdrew them.”

Omokri attributed his earlier claims to misinformation largely propagated by Sowore’s platform, Sahara Reporters. He said his position changed after Tinubu’s election was affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2023, which he said clarified that the president had no criminal convictions.

The ambassador-designate also revealed that he apologized personally to President Tinubu on October 1, 2024, prostrating before him and stating he had been misled by media reports.

Legally, Omokri argued that withdrawn statements cannot be used to establish the truth of a claim in court, citing the rule against hearsay. “Therefore, Mr. Sowore cannot rely on statements I made between 2022 and 2023, and then publicly withdrew in 2023, as a defense for statements he made in August 2025,” he stated.

Omokri concluded by affirming, “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not, has never been, and will never be a drug lord,” and expressed readiness to testify under oath to that effect.