Tinubu’s team denies “London meeting with CJN”, says the president-elect still in France

The campaign team of Bola Tinubu has denied the report of a clandestine meeting between the president-elect and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, in the UK.

The campaign, in a statement issued by one of its spokespersons, Bayo Onanuga, said contrary to the claim in the report, Mr Tinubu is still in Paris, France and has not moved to London.

An online medium had reported that the CJN covertly left the country for the UK to have a meeting with the president-elect to discuss the presidential election case.

Two major opposition parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) have both filed separate petitions, challenging the results of the 25 February presidential election.

Mr Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was on 1 March declared as winner by INEC after securing a plurality of votes and 25 per cent of votes cast in 29 states. He defeated Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, Peter Obi of the Labour Party and 15 other candidates.

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It is a fabrication—Onanuga

While debunking the report, Mr Onanuga said the CJN left the country on 11 March for the UK, while Mr Tinubu left on 21 March for Paris, France.

He added that Mr Tinubu has plans to visit the UK, but he is still resting in Paris.

“We refute emphatically that there has been no clandestine meeting between the President-elect and the respected Chief Justice of our country, anywhere. It’s pure fabricated news, groundless in fact and authenticity.

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“To show that the story was a mere salacious fiction, meant to draw traffic to the discredited purveyor, it claimed the Chief Justice left Nigeria for London on 11 March, on a wheelchair to board a plane.

“The President-elect left Nigeria on 21 March, 10 clear days thereafter. What kind of appointment or secret meeting will the two men have arranged in London, with so wide disparate arrival dates, except in the imagination of the false news merchants?

“We can confirm that the president-elect, who left Nigeria Tuesday has not been in London.

“He is right now in France to have a deserved rest, after a hectic campaign that began in January 2022,” he said.