Sen. Bola Tinubu’s residence was allegedly raided by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), who also claimed they took N400 billion from the property.
The head of the commission’s media and publicity department, Wilson Uwujaren, released the following statement on Sunday: “The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been drawn to a report circulating in the social media, claiming that the Commission’s operatives raided the home of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the party’s standard-bearer in the upcoming presidential elections, and recovered a humongous sum of N400 billion.
Online sources state that President Muhammadu Buhari directed the EFCC to raid Tinubu’s home, and that 400 billion fresh naira notes were found there.
However, the anti-corruption agency said that no such operation was conducted by its operatives in the statement headlined “EFCC Did Not Raid Tinubu’s Home.”
“The Commission would like to clarify that the EFCC did not conduct such an operation. The general populace is urged to ignore the report as false.
APC PCC refutes EFCC raid on Tinubu’s home
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission agents allegedly raided the residence of the All Progressives Congress’ presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and allegedly recovered N400 billion. This claim has been refuted by the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council.
At the same time, the campaign committee demanded that the publishers be detained for libel.
After the EFCC also denied conducting the raid on the former governor of Lagos State’s home, the APC PCC responded.
On Sunday, an online platform, Igbo Times Magazine, published the controversial report that about N400bn old notes were discovered by operatives of the EFCC after one of Tinubu’s underground homes was raided.
The news gained traction on social media before it was refuted by the anti-graft agency on Sunday.
Igbo Times Magazine, an online publication, made the contentious claim on Sunday that the EFCC’s agents found roughly N400 billion in old notes after searching one of Tinubu’s underground residences.
Before the anti-graft agency disputed it on Sunday, the news gathered popularity on social media.
A statement from the PCC Media and Publicity Director, Bayo Onanuga, also mentioned that the campaign council had learned that the fake website was created to spread hostile and misleading information about their candidate.
Onanuga scowled at the tale, claiming it lacked the crucial “when, where, and how” that go into making any news story.
The former managing director of the News Agency of Nigeria commended the EFCC for swiftly denying involvement in the false report by publishing an official statement regarding the alleged raid by its troops, but he urged national security organizations to pursue the website owners.
“We encourage the authorities to track down the individuals responsible for the website that is heedlessly disseminating bogus news, before additional harm is done to our polity,” he said. Nigerians are being cautioned to be skeptical of any news coming from the website and its social media accounts.