Sophia Michaels
A Guinean diplomatic passport bearing the name of President-elect Bola Tinubu has surfaced online.
Tongues have been left wagging on social media since the passport surfaced online with many speculating that Tinubu may have lied to the nation’s electoral commission while under oath, according to a report by Peoples Gazette.
The revelation was made by independent journalist David Hundeyin who uploaded images of a Guinean diplomatic passport bearing “Bola Ahmed Tinubu” on his Twitter account.
The passport also carried Mr Tinubu’s image and said it was issued in October 2015, expiring five years later in October 2020.
The passport was apparently issued to Mr Tinubu while his ally Alpha Conde was Guinean president.
Mr Tinubu had publicly claimed credit for helping Mr Conde secure reelection in October 2015. The Guinean leader was ousted in a military coup in 2021.
Mr Tinubu, whose whereabouts remained unclear since he secretly travelled to Europe around March 20, was nominated by Nigeria’s ruling party APC at its convention on June 8, 2022, and went on to be declared the winner of the presidential election that was held on February 25, 2023.
Mr Tinubu’s emergence as president-elect has been challenged by his two main challengers, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, in a battle that would drag up to the Supreme Court in a span over 240 days.
The latest disclosure that the president-elect obtained Guinean citizenship has met a strident silence from his surrogates.
Dele Alake, Festus Keyamo and Bayo Onanuga, who are usually quick to defend their principal with strong-worded statements, have been oddly quiet, avoiding the matter. Multiple efforts to get comments from Messrs Keyamo and Onanuga fell through on Sunday.
However, Mr Alake said he had no comments about his principal’s dual citizenship and the potential perjury charges for denying a foreign passport under oath.
In the same vein, social media aides like Segun Dada and Jubril Gawat have also been mysteriously quiet, in a manner that is unlike the team known for its defensive rebuttals.
The dual citizenship dimension, which has caused Mr Tinub
