Lovers of Nigeria’s president-elect are expressing frustration on Twitter in response to a tweet by UBerFacts, a platform known for sharing reliable information.
The tweet revealed that Bola Tinubu, a member of the president-elect’s team, had forfeited $460,000 to the U.S. government in 1993 after a Chicago court found that the income came from heroin trafficking.
The tweet included a link to an article from Peoples Gazette that provided details of Tinubu’s legal troubles.
The tweet quickly became the number one trend on Twitter, and while high-ranking members of Tinubu’s campaign team have remained silent, lower-level supporters have taken to Twitter to discredit UBerFacts.
Some have accused UBerFacts of spreading lies for money, calling it a “pay per post organization.” Others have dismissed UBerFacts as a propaganda platform trying to gain relevance online.
Despite the fact that certified copies of Tinubu’s money forfeiture are in the public domain, Tinubu himself has insisted that he has no criminal record when registering his presidential ambition with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) last year.
Throughout his campaign, Tinubu has avoided addressing his criminal past, and his supporters vehemently criticize anyone who brings up the matter.
When contacted for comment, Bayo Onanuga, one of Tinubu’s supporters, dismissed UBerFacts’ tweet as nonsense and expressed annoyance at the recycling of the issue. He brushed off the matter, saying, “Who is Uber? Who is Uber? Please don’t spoil my day.”
