Former member of the Enugu State House of Assembly and Southeast Spokesman to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Denge Joseph Onoh, on Monday submitted a protest letter to the Senate President at the National Assembly, protesting against the confirmation of Reno Omokri as an ambassador-designate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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In the open letter titled: “Strong protest against the confirmation of Bernadette Reno Omokri as ambassador-designate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, Joseph Onoh, who also described himself as “a patriot and stakeholder in the image and reputation of our dear country”, stated that he had unapologetically promoted Tinubu’s policies nationally and internationally, but he has to strongly protest vehemently and urge the Senate in the strongest possible terms to reject the nomination and confirmation of Mr. Omokri as ambassador-designate of the country.
He alleged that “Mr. Omokri’s antecedents, public statements, and documented actions constitute a direct threat to Nigeria’s national interest, diplomatic integrity, and international reputation”, adding that confirming him as an ambassador would inflict irreversible damage on the nation and send a dangerous signal to the world.
Quoting extensively from documents he tagged anti-Nigerian and defamatory attacks on the President by Reno Omokri from 2019 to 2023, he further stated: “While serving as a spokesperson and social media aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, and subsequently as a private citizen, Mr. Omokri waged a sustained, vicious, and internationally publicized campaign of calumny against the current President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Among numerous others, the following allegations were made repeatedly by Mr. Omokri on international television, radio, newspapers, and social media platforms with millions of followers: He repeatedly called President Bola Ahmed Tinubu a ‘drug lord’ and ‘drug baron’ with a ‘shady past’, publicly claimed on Arise TV, Channels Television, BBC Hausa Service, and in several viral Twitter threads that he (Reno Omokri) possesses documentary evidence that President Tinubu was involved in narcotics trafficking and money laundering in the United States, and stated that the American government has a file on President Tinubu as a known narcotics kingpin and that he is in possession of court documents proving same.
“He also organized and personally participated in the infamous #HarassBuhariOutOfLondon protest in the United Kingdom in 2021, but later redirected the same energy in 2022–2023 to harass and defame President Tinubu in London and Abuja, calling him ‘Chicago Drug Kingpin’. He authored and promoted the discredited ‘Mike Arnold’ forgery saga, a fabricated document purporting to be a U.S. court record implicating the President in drug trafficking, which was later exposed as a forgery but not before it was widely circulated and relied upon by certain U.S.-based religious freedom advocacy groups in their successful campaign to have Nigeria re-designated as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) in 2021.”
According to him, these are not private opinions but deliberate, repeated, and internationally broadcast allegations of serious criminality against the sitting Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. “The forged ‘Mike Arnold’ document that Mr. Omokri heavily promoted became one of the key exhibits used by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and certain advocacy groups to justify Nigeria’s continued designation as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) — a designation that brings diplomatic shame and economic sanctions risk.
“To now reward the chief promoter of that forgery and those defamatory allegations with an ambassadorial position to represent Nigeria abroad is to tell the world that Nigeria officially endorses the narrative that its own President is a drug baron. The same Department of State Services (DSS) that reportedly raised security concerns leading to the rejection of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai’s ministerial nomination in 2023 is the same agency that supposedly vetted and cleared Mr. Reno Omokri. If a man who called the President a drug baron on international television, claimed to have evidence, and organized protests against him abroad is now deemed fit to represent Nigeria, then the Senate will have…”
Stating that Omokri’s confirmation will cast permanent doubt on the credibility and consistency of DSS vetting processes, he said the confirmation will destroy the moral and ethical standards expected of Nigerian diplomats, and give the world reason to believe that the President is indeed guilty of the allegations and that Mr. Omokri was appointed ambassador to buy his silence.
“I respectfully urge every Senator, for the love of Nigeria and the people, to reject the confirmation of Mr. Reno Omokri until and unless he appears before the Senate and publicly presents the evidence he repeatedly claimed to possess that President Tinubu is a drug baron. If he fails or refuses to produce such evidence, his nomination must be rejected outright.
“To do otherwise is to damage the moral fabric of our nation’s diplomatic corps, validate the very lies that have been used to tarnish Nigeria’s image abroad, and confirm to the international community the false and malicious narrative that the President of Africa’s largest nation is a narcotics kingpin who buys silence with ambassadorial appointments,” he stated.
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