The spokesman of the Bola Tinubu campaign council in the southeast, Dr. Josef Onoh has repudiated the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi over the Obi-Datti’s team request for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to quit the presidential race over a stale allegation of the drug scandal.

The Obi-Datti media office of the LP presidential candidate had on Wednesday accused Tinubu of being indicted by the United States of America, but Onoh in his counter to the allegations told Obi that he cannot become the president of Nigeria through a back door and slander.

Onoh said that Obi is seeking undue promotion to the presidency of Nigeria through offensive means, stating that even if Tinubu quits the presidential race Obi cannot be “awarded” the presidential seat.

He recalled that he had already dispensed with the mischievous allegations on Tinubu, wherein he provided the clean bills of health that were already made on Tinubu in the frivolous allegations, stating that it was because Tinubu is already coasting to clear victory that has made his rivals such as Obi and the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to become jittery and want to take Tinubu back in time.

He noted that what took place in America was a civil forfeiture that did not have any criminal charge which the “ignorant” opposition does not deserve time to be wasted upon.

Onoh referred Obi and his team to his media publications on the September 5 2022 birthday anniversary of Asiwaju where he disclosed that Tinubu at 70 years was fit, with no drug and ill health charges against him as his political opponents have laboriously tried to hang on him. He recited the USA clean bill of health, which it exonerated Tinubu from any drug dealing in the country.

Citing a letter from the US Consulate in Lagos of February 4, 2003, to the then Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun with reference number SR. 3000/IGPSEC/ABJ/VOL. 24/287, Onoh said that the United States of America after going through Tinubu’s records in America found nothing incriminating on him, noting that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indicated that at no time was Tinubu arrested or wanted for a crime in the USA.

In a letter signed by the legal attaché in the US consulate, Michael H. Bonner, to the Nigeria Police, the Consulate said that “a record check of the FBI National Crime Information Center (NCIC) was conducted and the results of the check were negative for any criminal records, wants, or warrants for Bola Ahmed Tinubu (DOB 29 March 1952). For information of your department, NCIC is a very centralized information centre that maintains the records of every criminal arrest and conviction within the United States and its territories.”

Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of Alliance for Democracy (AD), Mr. Abiodun Ogunleye, had on January 30, 2003, written to the Inspector-General of Police, dated February 3, 2003, asking him to make enquiries at the US Embassy in connection with allegations of drug trafficking and money laundering levelled at the governor by a gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the party, Sir Tunde Olowu, with a view to confirming if he (Tinubu) indeed had any criminal record.

Onoh, therefore, repeated that Tinubu has been investigated severally without indictment, yet people have continued to parade falsehood and propaganda on the APC presidential candidate.

“The renewed distractions of the opposition political parties, particularly the PDP, were as a result of their lack of funds and the G5 Governors’ crises which are inducing their campaign Directors to quit their jobs and which has subjected the opposition parties to stress and distress. “

Onoh also accused the Labour party of prevarication arising from their late realization that the party does not have the spread of candidates in the 36 states to win the election for the party and its presidential candidate, “hence the desperation to resurrect and give life to a non-issue on Asiwaju.”

He noted that the allegations on Asiwaju have been answered many months ago, stating that if the allegations were true, the United States of America would have acted within the ambit of the law.

“So the coast is set for Asiwaju to win, hence this desperation from people wanting to graduate from the university even without an admission into in the first place,” Onoh chided the opposition.

He urged the electorates in the southeast geopolitical zone to wake up while the coast is still clear, noting that in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, ‘Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.’

“Hence we the supporters of BAT will not be distracted by views and tantrums of the opposition and political wanderers as we focus on the renewed hope for our dear country and await victory come February 2023 which to us is the ultimate reward for dedicated hard work rather than join them in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. We celebrate Victory come 2023.”