Joe Igbokwe, a prominent chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has called on activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, to publicly retract and apologise for calling President Bola Ahmed Tinubu a “criminal.”
Igbokwe made the demand in a strongly worded opinion piece titled “My 10 Kobo Advice to Sowore,” where he expressed shock and disappointment over the activist’s remarks directed at the sitting President.
“I was stunned into disbelief and in total shock when he called a sitting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria a criminal,” Igbokwe wrote.
“I advised him to withdraw the shameful, scurrilous drivels and apologise to the President. Up till now, he has not found the need to apologise.”
He warned that such accusations, coming from someone of Sowore’s public standing, were not only disrespectful to the President but also to the millions of Nigerians who elected him.
Igbokwe went on to defend Tinubu’s public service record, describing him as “an international Chartered Accountant, a distinguished scholar in the best tradition, former Senator and two-term Governor of Lagos State and now the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”
He argued that labeling the President a criminal was equivalent to insulting over 200 million Nigerians who participated in the democratic process.
“When you call a President we all elected a criminal, it is at once telling us that more than 200 million Nigerians are criminals. This is unacceptable,” he stated.
Igbokwe also questioned Sowore’s post-student activism trajectory, saying his relevance has declined since his days as President of the University of Lagos Students’ Union.
“These activities are getting diminished every day and do not make sense to people like us anymore,” he added.
Reaffirming his personal relationship with Sowore, Igbokwe said his appeal was not just political but also personal.
“I have asked you as a friend to retract these nonsensical effusions and openly apologise to the President and Nigeria. This is our irreducible minimum demand,” he concluded.
This exchange comes amid ongoing friction between Sowore and Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS).
The security agency recently asked X (formerly Twitter) to remove a tweet in which Sowore referred to President Tinubu as a criminal, a demand Sowore’s legal team has rejected as unconstitutional.
