INEC Denies Investigating Tinubu over Alleged US Court Indictment

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied investigating the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, over his alleged indictment by a court in the United States.

In a statement by INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr. Festus Okoye, dissociated the commission from a fake press statement purported to have been issued by the commission that was trending online since Friday, November 11, 2022.

The fake press statement claimed that INEC had commenced an investigation into a case of criminal forfeiture against one of the presidential candidates in the forthcoming general election and that the commission is liaising with a court in the United States of America in pursuit of the same to determine a possible violation of INEC’s guidelines or the Electoral Act 2022.

Okoye said: “We wish to state categorically that the said press release did not emanate from the commission nor is it pursuing the purported course of action.
“It is the handiwork of mischief makers and utterly fake.”

Okoye noted that “press releases from the commission are uploaded to the INEC Press Corps platform and simultaneously disseminated through our website and official social media handles.”
He, therefore, advised the public to ignore the press release.