Reno Omokri, an ambassador-designate, has said Omoyele Sowore cannot rely on earlier comments he made about President Bola Tinubu as a defence in Sowore’s ongoing cybercrime trial.
Sowore is standing trial on a two-count charge filed by Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS) over an August 25 post on X in which he described Tinubu as a “criminal”.
The post was made in response to remarks by the president on corruption during a visit to Brazil.
At a court hearing on Tuesday, Sowore’s lawyer, Marshal Abubakar, presented video evidence during the cross-examination of the prosecution’s first witness.
The exhibits included clips of Omokri, including a 2023 ARISE TV interview in which he accused Tinubu of being a “drug lord” and claimed to have documents to support the allegation.
In a statement, Omokri said he made the comments between 2022 and 2023, believing them to be true at the time, but later withdrew them.
He said his change of position followed Tinubu’s inauguration and the Supreme Court ruling that upheld the president’s election, which he said confirmed there were no criminal charges or convictions against him.
Omokri added that he had apologised to Tinubu privately and argued that statements which had been withdrawn could not be relied upon in law.
He said Sowore could not use comments he had made and later retracted as a defence for statements published in August 2025.