More U.S media outlets publish Tinubu’s drug dealing exposé

Following the official release of the official documents detailing court proceedings in the forfeiture of $460, 000 by President-elect, Bola Tinubu in 1993 to the Chicago, Illinois treasury, which an American court had ruled were proceeds from heroin trafficking by the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, more news outlets in the United States are sensationally publishing the report.

It would be recalled that the first to upload the court’s document was the U.S-based online fact verification and information company, UberFacts which immediately came under a barrage of attacks from the Tinubu media camp and supporters alike, who accused it of being paid to publish the damning report.

However, barely hours after UberFacts took the plunge, Oracle Today newspaper can confirm that more popular news platforms in the United States have joined in publishing the report of the U.S court-forfeiture of $460, 000 by Tinubu as part of plea bargain to avoid jail in a drug trafficking charge.

The latest to publish the report is the Daily Loud, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States-based media and news company with focus on hip hop and viral content, which draws a healthy 1.6 million follows globally.

Daily Loud posted the Tinubu saga via its Twitter handle (@DailyLoud), Monday night, with the running caption: “In 1993, Bola Ahmed Tinubu surrendered $460,000 to the U.S. government after a Chicago court found the income came from packing and shipping heroin.”

Less than two hours after, the post went viral registering 3 million views, with 17, 400 retweets, 25, 600 likes, with 4, 991 quotes (and still counting).

It is feared with the initial high views registered by UberFacts on its post on the Tinubu drug dealing court case, many more American news platforms may enter the frenzy to gain traffic.

The situation may also see the hands of the Tinubu media camp full, as they had dissipated energy battling UberFacts on the assumption that it will scare off other news channel from publishing the report, considered to be damaging to the case of their principal at the Presidential Elections Tribunal in Abuja.

The sudden frenzy by U.S media channels to publish the reports also appears to have destroyed any presumed gains made by the recent visit of the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed to the United States, last week.

The hale of bad press against the president-elect and chieftain of the APC challenges the whole aim of last week’s working visit to the United States, precisely to the capital, Washington DC by Alhaji Mohammed, who had toured select media companies, and political institutes in a bid to market the just-concluded 2023 General Elections in Nigeria as credible, in addition to countering negative reports on the hotly disputed and controversial polls.

Mohammed’s one-week trip saw him organize press briefings with select media and other private and public agencies in the U.S where he attempted to convince the world on the need to appreciate the country’s just-ended election, despite its trailing controversies, as well as, other challenges like the mounting insecurity and poorly-timed cash swap policy.

The minister also had engagements with the Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank on African affairs and foreign relations chaired by a Nigerian, Ebenezer Obadare.

He was also at the Reuters News Agency; The Politico, an international political newspaper, and Zenger News, a channel that publishes its contents on Forbes.

At Reuters, the agency’s recent investigation of alleged secret programmes of coerced abortion of women and girls freed from insurgents’ captivity were discussed.

Also joining in the scramble to publish the report, another overseas-based online platform, known as, Africa Archives has released its publication.

The platform which prides itself as an archive for ‘Africa historical, cultural and photographic records,’ and also for ‘Telling the Africans history and stories,’ published the complete details of the Chicago court ruling, in a series of over a dozen tweets, Monday.

Africa Archives commands a hefty 441, 000 followers, just as the Tinubu report had gained 573, 000 views, with 7, 400 retweets, by late Monday night.

While as at the close of Monday, the UberFacts report had hit 4.3 million views, that of Daily Loud had reached 3.6 million views, even as it is expected that more media platforms will join to reap the viewership gains.

Earlier Monday, camp and supporters of the president-elect, Tinubu attacked UberFacts for publishing court papers relating to the drug dealings of their principal by a United States court, Monday, despite the court making releasing the said document to the general public.

This is also as the online fact-finding platform has defended itself for publishing the court documents, saying it’s action was not induced by money from the opposition in Nigeria.

Following the official release of the documents detailing court proceeding in the forfeiture of $460, 000 in 1993 belonging to Tinubu to the Chicago, Illinois treasury, which the American court had ruled were proceeds from a heroin trafficking by the president-elect, the online platform proceeded to publish the papers as editorial content, Monday.

The sum is part of a plea bargain entered into by Tinubu with the State of Chicago for the latter to avoid serving prison time in the U.S.

However, the publication did not go well with the Tinubu camp, as they have accused the owner of the UberFacts, Kris Sanchez, of being paid to publish the documents, even as the company maintains its innocence, claiming that the documents were made public by the Chicago, Illinois court.

It should be noted that among the prayers filed by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Dr Peter Obi, in his petition at the Presidential Elections Petition Tribunal in Abuja is the request for the court to disqualify Tinubu over his hard drug trafficking conviction by a United States court.

Meanwhile, Tinubu has consistently informed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in his affidavits to stand for election that he had no prior criminal convictions.

The U.S District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, last Saturday, released fresh documents holding Bola Tinubu’s encounter with American authorities over allegations of narcotics trafficking and money laundering.

The 56-page document released by the district court’s headquarters in Chicago did not include crucial new details, but it further confirmed snippets of the matter that had been shared spontaneously by the media for years.

However, the publication of parts of the documents by UberFacts irked the supporters and aides of Tinubu who now accuse the company of collecting money from the opposition to publish the court papers, Monday.

Reacting to the accusations, the company, Monday, first responded via a post, by stating:

“For clarification, the source was United States Court documents which are public records and available in their entirety here: uberfacts.wiki/41foet7”

On accusations of collecting money, the company replied through its owner, Kris Sanchez, said:

“And no I wasn’t paid to post that, in cash, kernel or otherwise.”

Uber Facts, with a reported 13.5 million global audience; audience, posted the story on Sunday with the headline; “In 1993, Tinubu surrendered $460,000 to the US government after Chicago court found the income came from heroin trafficking”