By Okoi Obono-Obla<\/b><\/p>\n
A viral political propaganda post has been circulating, falsely claiming that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be arrested in the United States like Venezuela\u2019s Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, detained, and that the APC will lose its presidential candidate to pave the way for Atiku Abubakar. This narrative is deliberately misleading, designed to sow panic among APC supporters. Here is what actually happened versus what the propaganda invents:<\/p>\n
1. FBI filing vs. propaganda<\/p>\n
The FBI did not \u201cclear the air\u201d or \u201crelease\u201d 399 pages. What occurred was a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit: Greenspan v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys et al., No. 23-1816. Activist Aaron Greenspan requested the FBI\u2019s file on Tinubu. On August 20, 2026, Judge Beryl Howell allowed the FBI to submit its justifications privately, under seal, for confidential review. On August 28, the FBI filed a Notice of Compliance confirming it had hand-delivered those sealed declarations. The \u201c399 pages\u201d claim originated from commentary on X (formerly Twitter), not from the FBI\u2019s public filing. Fact-checks confirm that this number and descriptions were speculative, not official.<\/p>\n
2. Misrepresented source<\/p>\n
The source cited as a \u201cSenior Government Advisor\u201d is actually Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., a Washington lobbying firm retained by Atiku Abubakar. Presenting it as an independent government advisor is a clear misrepresentation.<\/p>\n
3. Civil vs. criminal case<\/p>\n
Contrary to claims, the matter was not proven to be a criminal case. The historical record shows it was a 1993 civil forfeiture case in Chicago involving $460,000. Tinubu was never criminally charged. The Nigerian Presidential Election Petition Tribunal ruled in 2023 that this forfeiture did not amount to a criminal conviction or disqualification.<\/p>\n
4. No arrest looming<\/p>\n
The suggestion of an \u201cinternational arrest\u201d is pure fabrication. This is a FOIA transparency lawsuit, not a criminal prosecution. No indictment, arrest warrant, or charges exist. The FBI invoked standard FOIA exemptions to protect privacy, sources, and investigative techniques\u2014routine in such cases.<\/p>\n
5. Fear-mongering speculation<\/p>\n
Statements like \u201cAnother Venezuela may be loading\u201d or \u201cAPC may be left without a 2027 candidate\u201d are baseless political speculation. Nothing in the docket disqualifies Tinubu or the APC. The Tribunal has already ruled that the 1993 forfeiture was not disqualifying.<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/p>\n
In reality, the U.S. court filing is a procedural FOIA matter, not a criminal case. The propaganda inflates sealed filings into sensational claims of drug lab tests, arrests, and disqualification\u2014all of which are false. This is a calculated attempt to misinform and create panic. The facts remain clear: no criminal conviction, no arrest, and no disqualification.<\/p>\n
@ Okoi Obono-Obla<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A viral political propaganda post has been circulating, falsely claiming that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be arrested in the United States like Venezuela\u2019s Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, detained, and that the APC will lose its presidential candidate to pave the way for Atiku Abubakar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[11786,5257,11783,193,11784,11785],"class_list":["post-27099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-okoi-obono-obla","tag-propaganda","tag-reality","tag-tinubu","tag-truth","tag-u-s-court-filing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27099"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27103,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27099\/revisions\/27103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}