A former presidential aide, Reno Omokri, has dismissed reports claiming that the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released criminal records concerning President Bola Tinubu to a U.S. court.
Government
Omokri described the reports as misleading, arguing that the existence of FBI records containing Tinubu’s name does not necessarily mean the records are criminal in nature.
In a statement shared on his social media pages on Monday, Omokri said recent reports claiming the FBI had released Tinubu’s “criminal records” to U.S. District Judge Howell Beryl of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia had been amplified by the President’s political opponents.
“These claims are untrue, and these individuals and their surrogates are using clever semantics to deceive the public,” he said.
Omokri, the Ambassador Designate to Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua, said he travelled to Chicago, Illinois, between September 18 and 20, 2022, to investigate claims about Tinubu’s records and described the allegations he encountered as unfounded.
“President Bola Tinubu has no criminal record in the United States, Nigeria, or anywhere else, and the FBI has not provided any criminal record on the President to anyone because none exists,” he claimed.
According to Omokri, while FBI databases may contain information relating to Tinubu, such records should not automatically be interpreted as criminal records.
He explained that the FBI maintains extensive databases containing both criminal and non-criminal information on American citizens, residents and foreign nationals.
Omokri further noted that the FBI conducts background checks for certain U.S. government agencies, including the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security, as part of visa application processes.
He argued that an individual’s name in an FBI database could therefore generate records without implying criminal conduct.
“Thus, as a US citizen or resident, or even as a foreign national, if your name is run through the FBI databases, it is likely to bring up hundreds of pages of records. This does not mean that the records are criminal. In most cases, they will be benign,” he said.
Geographic Reference
Omokri also argued that such records could contain sensitive personal information, including biometric and biographical data, and questioned whether individuals would want such private information made public for political reasons.
On the specific issue of alleged criminal records involving Tinubu, Omokri referred to a 2003 correspondence between the Nigerian authorities and the U.S. Embassy.
He said that on February 3, 2003, the then Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun, wrote to the U.S. Embassy seeking information on whether the FBI had criminal records concerning Tinubu, who was then governor of Lagos State.
According to Omokri, the embassy responded the following day and gave what he described as “the all clear” regarding criminal records involving Tinubu.
Omokri said the correspondence was consistent with findings from his 2022 visit to Chicago, when he said he investigated Tinubu’s academic and other records.
He urged Nigerians who questioned the document’s authenticity to contact the U.S. Embassy in Abuja or Lagos for clarification.